A Return to Family Values
by J. Lucy-Daisuke
Summary: COMPLETE AND MOVED TO NEW STORY. Continuation of View from the Storm's Eye. Another year another parting, but old habits die hard and the gang finds themselves at the call of their boss. Will personal conflicts interfere too much?
1. Born to Move

DISCLAIMER: Well, just in case you didn't realize it, I don't own Lupin the Third. All others? Ohhh yeah… Well, except Jordan. I share custody of him (shrugs) I'm a part-time mom to him. Him and a couple others… Listen, it's complicated, okay?

Ah, welcome once again, and thanks always for your support!

New series as promised, yay! Yup, I really think I just needed a change of scenery, more than anything, to get my motivation in gear! And, well, it's working, I'll tell you that much. I hope you guys like this as much as you've liked the other parts, and thanks for tuning in to yet another portion of what's now turned into the _Lupin IV_ saga. Please enjoy and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Fun Fact of Boredom: I was originally going to start this series around the 22nd (Or 24th, or something… I dunno, I'm as bad as a typical boyfriend on an NBC sitcom with anniversaries), which'll be my 3rd year anniversary of writing this series… So that's my, what, silver anniversary, or something? But I just couldn't wait that long! So, maybe I'll just do something special then, considering how important the number three is in this series.

Chapter One: Born to Move

Barcelona, Spain:

"Another of the same, señora?" the bartender glanced over to the gray-suited figure, who only shook her head and sat up tiredly, brushing away some of her shoulder-length hair.

"Nah… And it's señorita, Paulo," she muttered, setting aside her glass and standing from the couch. "I've got to go see my daughter…"

"Ah, yes, pardon me," said Paulo the bartender with a nod. "Say hello to little Saiyuri for me, Miss Yukiko."

"You got it. Oh, and put my drinks on my boss's tab," Yukiko muttered and slunk out of the bar, her hands in her pockets. She walked into a nearby alleyway, and sighed as she heard footsteps behind her. She removed a cigarette from her pack and gave a small chuckle to the several young men surrounding her. "You really think you're gonna beat me, huh? You really that intent on getting to your graves so fast?"

"Shut up and draw, you old bitch!" shouted one of the Spanish men with a smile.

"Buddy, you can call me a bitch all you want… But 'old' is just asking for trouble," Yukiko flicked the cigarette out of her mouth and smashed it to the ground, holding out her hand and preparing herself to draw.

The group of five drew out their guns, and before they could even attempt to fire, they held their hands with the pain of having the weapons shot out of their hands.

"Get the hell out of here, stop fighting people who could be your mother!" Yukiko shouted as the men looked to her with stunned surprise. She blew off the smoke of her gun and placed it back in her holster, and laughed as they took off running. "Go on, run home! And let me get back to my damn life…"

"Not so fast…. You ready for a wager?"

"What? Who in the hell are you?" Yukiko looked over her shoulder to a stocky figure atop a motorcycle, who had an automatic aimed to her. His face was completely covered by a helmet, and he wore a heavy jacket in addition to leather gloves and tight pants and Harley boots. "Jesus… One of those days… What in the hell do you want?"

"Just a draw…" said the person sitting atop the motorcycle. They dismounted, and approached Yukiko. "You know, you're kind of cute.."

"Save it—I ain't looking for anyone right now," snapped Yukiko. "What's in it for me?"

"You win, I give you three-hundred thousand, American."

"That's a sum that says you ain't playing around… What's in it for me if I lose?"

"You run a job for me," answered the helmeted-figure. "No questions ask."

"If it involves anything—"

"Nothing like that," the figure held up a hand and chuckled. "I don't think you'd like what I have, anyway. So what do you say? One bullet? I get it in your hat, you lose, you hit my helmet, I lose?"

"I hit your helmet you're dead."

"Oh, I don't think you will, Yukiko-san."

"How did you—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a shot was fired, and a gray fedora went flying into the air. The person in the helmet smiled as Yukiko bent down to retrieve her fedora, and grumbled, "Looks like you won… Now who may I ask do I owe thepleasure of this defeat to?"

Yukiko was in the midst of placing another cigarette in her mouth, but the cigarette soon found its place in her windpipe as her new 'boss' removed their helmet, revealing a head of long, wavy blackhair and a smile that could only belong to a Lupin, or, more precisely, Fuji Lupin.

"Yukiko-san?" Fuji bent over as Yukiko continued to choke, finally downing the cigarette and looking up to Fuji with shock. "Surprise!"

"I'm gonna kill you!" Yukiko choked and lunger for Fuji, who ducked out of the way quickly. "Ugh… That tasted awful! What in the hell are you doing here, anyway?"

"I thought I'd get the best gunwoman in the world to give me a hand with a little endeavor," answered Fuji with a shrug, adjusting a backpack that Yukiko only now noticed. "Now what's with the costume change, eh? Finally figure out that white clashes with an olive skin tone?"

"Ain't any of your business," muttered Yukiko, tilting her fedora to a side. "Where've you been, Fuji?"

"Yukiko, it's a long story…" answered Fuji with a smirk. "How about we talk about it on the plane ride to New York, eh? That's where you were going, right? Well, I have a private plane."

"Good, 'cause the last thing I wanna deal with is screaming kids…"

"Now, that I'm not sure I can do anything about…."

"Say what?"

"Another long story—Well, needless to say we're going to have a ton to talk about on the flight home."

Paris, France:

"Hey… Come on, sleepyhead…" Leo sat up in bed as the alarm went off and shook Max, who only grumbled and waved away Lupin. Leo gave a small chuckle and kissed him atop the head. "Come on…. The kids aren't up, yet…"

"Really, now?" Max raised an eyebrow as he looked over to Leo, and slowly sat up beside him. He reached forward and sighed as he brushed Leo's hair out fromhis husband'seyes. "When are you gonna let me give you a haircut?"

"Later," Leo answered, and leaned against him. "You have another doctor's appointment today. And we've got lunch with Myra and Nina."

"Jeeze, again? You know, I'm starting to think they see me unclothed more than you do," Max moaned and reached to the nightstand, grabbing a metal crutch and after a few attempts standing, looking over his shoulder to Leo.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Leo stood and walked around to Max, placing a hand on his partner's back. "How's it feel?"

"Mm, metal plates in my spine? Fantastic," Max answered sarcastically. "I think everyone should get a surgery like this!"

"You'll be fine in no time," Leo sighed and pulled on his kimono, and not a moment too soon. There was the sound of the door opening, and Avery waddled in and motioned for his father to lift him up.

'Hungry,' he signed, and Leo looked to Max with small smile, and carried the little boy down the hall of the house with a tiredMax following behind on his crutch.

Dako was already in the kitchen, stirring batter for pancakes, and Max smiled and ruffled her hair on his way to the fridge, "Thanks, kid.."

"I'm not a kid," Dako sighed and placed several spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle in front of her, and tilted her head to a side. "Someone had to learn how to cook around here other than you."

"My apologies for being laid up in the hospital for months," Max smirked and opened the refrigerator. "Besides, a few more years and you'll be even better than me. Where's Jared?"

"Sleeping in, I think," Dako shrugged. "That or on the phone with his girlfriend."

Max made the motion of shooting himself in the head at the mention of Jared's girlfriend, and Leo only gave a chuckle and set Avery on the ground, 'Go sit down for breakfast.'

'Yeah! I'm really hungry!' Avery smiled widely and was soon off for the dining room while Max removed the carton of orange juice from the fridge and was in the process of drinking from it when Dako reached over and nudged him with a glass.

"Learn to drink out of a glass like a human," Dako sighed and set the glass on the counter beside Max. "So going to see your doctor again?"

"Yes," Max muttered and poured himself a glass, shutting the refrigerator door and leaning against the counter. "Against my will, as usual."

"Well, you _know _it's what's best for you."

"I know, and that's what pisses me off the most," Max sighed and set down the now-empty glass. "Well, I'm gonna go get dressed and head out… Papa's going to be looking after you guys."

"Ugh, I'm not a baby," Dako groaned. "Come on, eat something before you go, Dad."

"I'll be fine, I had juice," Max embraced her and then slowly began the trek back up the stairs to his bedroom, and fell back onto the bed, rubbing his sore back.

"You need some help?" Leo stuck his head in the doorway, and Max shook his head and attempted to sit up from the bed. "Come on, let me give you a hand."

"I'm fine!" Max snapped, and sighed after a moment, placing a hand over his forehead. "…I'm sorry. Listen, I…."

"Here. Which jacket do you want?" Leo stepped over to the closet and pulled open the door, but soon there was the noise of a helicopter, and both turned toward the bedroom window.

"…The hell?" Max muttered and stood up, and walked over to the window, Leo rested a hand upon his shoulder as they watched a helicopter lower itself to their front window.

"Did you miss me? I'm back… Love, Lupin the Fourth—FUJI!" Leo shouted with a laugh as he read the banner hanging down from the helicopter's legs. "FUJI! Max, she's back, Max, she—Max?"

There was the sound of a great tumbling all of a sudden, and Dako gave a groan, "Pop, Dad fell down the stairs again!"

"Jesus… Max!" Leo called and hurried down the stairs to find Dako attempting to pull up her other father back into his crutch.

"She's back… We get to go chase her again," Max said, barely able to hide his excitement

"Max, no," Leo sighed. "You're hurt! AndI don't want you getting even more hurt than you already are!"

"Quit treating me like a cripple," Max adjusted himself in his crutch, and then started back up the stairs. "I've been waiting for this for over a year now. She's gonna hit something, and you know what, we're gonna be there, both of us."

"Oh, boy… Here we go again. I'll go get Jared," Dako sighed and climbed up to her stepbrother's room.

New York City, New York:

"Start spreading the news… I'm leavin' today… I got to be a part of it…."

"New York, New York!"

"Great, Saiyuri!" Toshiro lifted up his small daughter and laughed along with her, tossing her in the air, catching her once again and spinning her about. "Guess who's coming today?"

"Who?"

"Guess."

"Who, Daddy?" Saiyuri laughed and nudged her father.

"Well… What if I told you Mommy was coming, huh?"

"Mommy!" Saiyuri clasped her hands together and gasped happily, and Toshiro simply nodded and brushed her hair back, and looked up toward the front door as he heard it unlocking. He stood to his full length, drawfing his daughter, and stood still in place as Yukiko walked into the house, while Saiyuri squealed and ran into Yukiko's arms.

"Hey, sweetie!" Yukiko smiled and embraced the young girl tightly, kissing her on the forehead and then looking over to Toshiro, who simply looked away from her. "Hey… New haircolor?"

"I stopped dyeing it months ago," Toshiro muttered, noting his now gray hair in the mirror and then taking several steps forward. "Ever since Hicks won _American Idol_, it's been en vogue."

"Heh… Hey, why don't you show me those fingerpaintings Daddy told me about?" Yukiko smiled down to the little girl, and Saiyuri's eyes immediately lit, and she hopped out of her mother's arms, and tugged Yukiko along to her room.

"She's getting big…"

"Yeah… The doctor's say she's gonna be like five and a half feet tall.—Wait! Fuji!" Toshiro yelped and stared at the busty Lupin a moment, his mouth gaping in shock. "What… What…?"

"I'm getting that a lot," Fuji smirked and shrugged. "Do you have anything to drink? I'm carrying quite a load…"

"S-sure! I… I need to call Heiji!"

"He's already on his way," Fuji waved to him flippantly and seated herself upon the couch, setting her backpack upon her lap and then smiling as she glanced into it. Toshiro raised an eyebrow, and was about to approach her when the doorbell sounded. Fuji gave a nervous smile and shifted her feet as she watched Toshiro head to the door, and Heiji walked through the doorway, stopping his conversation with his brother as he laid eyes upon Fuji. Heiji had lost even more weight in his year-long search for Fuji, and his once round face was beginning to show the sharp features which his older brother and father had both borne. Those same sharp features at that moment looked over Fuji with stunned silence.

"….Oh…. Oh my God…" Heiji gasped, and Fuji stood, the backpack still in her arms. It was then Toshiro noted what was so bizarre about it, mainly the light-green color and the _Mankii-chan_ designs. The backpack then gave a wail, and the rest of the room fell silent.

"Shhh…. Sh, it's okay… I know, you need lunch…" Fuji whispered as she rocked the baby back and forth. She looked upward to Toshiro, and sighed, "Could you lead me to the kitchen? I don't have to worry about the others, as of yet… Just getting her something to eat."

Iga, Japan:

"….It's a skirt…" Jordan blinked as he looked over the kimono, and moaned as he first put on the white kimono that laid upon his bed. "How in the hell did she talk me into this?"

"Because you love her," Jordan quickly drew the robe to a close as Amaya entered, a smile upon her face. "You're putting it on all wrong. Here, let me… My God, if I were only a little younger…"

"Hehe… You're not making this much easier for me," Jordan's face reddened, and he looked toward the ceiling of the traditional Japanese home while Amaya tied the belt to the white kimono and then the gray kimono over this.

"You'll look as wonderful as she does," said Amaya with a wide smile as she handed him the parted skirt for the outfit, and allowed him to put this on. "It's only a shame her brothers couldn't be here…"

"Well, Heiji's fallen off the face of the earth, and Toshiro's busy with Saiyuri… Because Yukiko's being an _idiot_."

"Spoken like a man scorned," Amaya laughed and helped him into the black jacket that went over the kimono, and then tossed him his socks and sandals. "So, have you two talked about a family?"

"We've got Namiko."

"I know, but… I want a few little short blonde children running about the house, too."

"They probably wouldn't be blonde…"

"You know what I mean," Amaya said with a smile. "Now, your parents are outside, as well, so let's not screw this up, all right?"

"Yeah… Or else Goemon'll have my head," Jordan gave a nervous chuckle and followed his soon-to-be mother-in-law out. He was led out to the small temple across the garden of the traditional home, and Namiko went to run for her stepfather, only to be gently pulled back and chided by Goemon. Jordan took a seat in front of Shinto priest, looking over the small crowd anxiously. Odori then walked down the center of the temple, in a completely white kimono, which included a traditional bonnet and thick makeup.

Namiko looked to her mother with awe, and watched as Odori took her place across from Jordan, a small smile upon her face as she looked across to him.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Jordan whispered.

"Yes," Odori nodded excitedly and smiled as the procession began.

"I hope they consider a Catholic ceremony, as well," said Peter as he sat with his other siblings on Jordan's side.

"Ah, would you give it up already?" Gabe sighed. "They said no about the first thirty times, man!"

"Would you two belt up already?" Alsenia snapped.

"Hey, where's Dad?" Chris whispered to his sister.

"I dunno, but Fujiko's looking a lit-tle perturbed about it, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah, and she looks pissed," Gabe added.

Suddenly, the doors flew open and Lupin ran in, causing everyone in the room to jerk their heads up and Goemon to shoot a particularly icy glare toward Lupin, "They found Fuji! Fujicakes, haha, they found her!"

"Lupin…" Fujiko muttered uncomfortably as her husband embraced her and kissed her atop the forehead happily. "Lupin!"

"Dad!" Jordan shouted, and glanced to the ancient priest. "…You mind?"

"Well, she's got a baby!" Lupin said as he rose.

"She what!" Fujiko gasped and stood beside him.

"Say what, now?" Gabe blinked.

"Someone mated with her?" Odori said with a curled lip, and stood.

"…The hell? What are you do-ing?" Jordan asked through a feigned smile as he attempted to seat Odori once again.

"You know that Heiji must be grieving," Odori answered. "That's the reason why he didn't bother to show up for the wedding, it has to be! We may not get along, but at the end of the day we're still siblings, and he knows this as well as I do!"

"It was enough to work up the courage for me to come here, much less book everything four months in advance, and have to face months of jokes from my dad by wearing a freakin' skirt. You're not thinking about going to them, are you?"

"I have to," Odori stood, and handed the bonnet upon her head to the priest, who looked at it with curiosity. "I'm still in debt to Fuji, even after everything. And with a child I'll be even more needed. As a samurai I must protect her, and as someone who loves her I must make sure that she is all right."

"WOAH!" Gabe said in a disbelieving laugh, and looked to his siblings, nudging Chris. "Better than a bloody football match any day!"

"She didn't mean it like that, Gabriel!" Jordan shouted, and then dropped his voice as he looked down to Odori. "You didn't mean it like that, right?"

"I love her like I love all of my sisters, and she will be my sister," said Odori sternly. "If you come with me now, I promise you that I will marry you…. Just not today."

"Ngh…" Goemon clutched onto his chest, and Amaya gasped and immediately looked to him with worry.

"What is it, your heart?"

"I paid for it, and they're walking out," Goemon said in a mutter as he clutched even tighter to his chest.

"Ha! Been there! Welcome to my world!" Lupin called, and immediately reprimanded by Fujiko in the form of a light smack. "Ow! What?"

"You really want to do this?" asked Jordan, taking hold of her shoulders. Odori simply gave a nod, and he smirked, and patted her on the shoulder, turning to the small crowd. "Well, um… Thanks for coming out today, everybody, but you'll have to take a rain check… Hey, the good news is that there's a sushi bar in the house!"

"Come on, Namiko, we have a flight to catch," Odori took her daughter from her mother, and Amaya only gave a sigh to this and kissed Odori on the cheek.

"Have a good time…"

"Don't worry, we will," Odori answered, and exited the temple with Jordan while Goemon watched the duo, attempting to hold back a moan.

Cagliostro

"Come on," Ally laughed as the infant briefly balanced upon his knees. "Come on… Aw, you did it!" the little boy giggled wildly as he fell back onto his father's lap, Ally still clutching onto his tiny hands. "Good boy…"

" Mr. Jigen, a letter for you," announced a maid, and Ally raised an eyebrow at this, and nodded as he took the envelope in one hand while he carried his son in his other arm down the hall and into the library, where Carmen sat looking over a packet of paperwork tirelessly.

"Hey, Mom," Ally smirked and Carmen took the baby in her arms after setting aside some of the newest set of bills that required her attention. "How goes the running everything bit?"

"Mm, do I really have to answer that?" she sighed and kissed the brown-haired and blue-eyed boy upon the top of the head. "Some of the silliest things… They're expecting me to read through four pages of paperwork stating why their should more art classes in schools. I have no teaching degree, Allen! If anything, I know more about hockey than I do school systems!"

"Now if only every other politician on earth had the guts to admit that," Ally chuckled and opened the letter while remaining in a corner of the library, and his eyes grew wide from beneath his shag haircut. His head shot up, and he approached Carmen quickly with an excited smile upon her face. "It—It's Fuji! She—She's back! Ha ha! That's terrific, isn't it!"

Carmen stopped work upon her paperwork a moment, the corners of her lips fell, and she gave an obligatory nod, "…Yes… I suppose so…."

"Hey, there," Ally seated himself upon the edge of the library couch and took her chin in one of his hands, "if… If you don't want me to go, I won't. I'll stay here with you and Dai…"

"No, I know how important this is to you," Carmen sighed and tilted her head downward. "You should go… She's one of your greatest friends, anyway, so it'd be wrong to keep you from seeing her."

"You sure?"

"Positive," Carmen gave a tired smile as Ally kissed her deeply and then took his son in his arms again and tossed him into the air, catching him and laughing as he walked out of the library with Dai in his arms.

"So you're allowing him to go?" Carmen was caught off guard as she heard her mother from the doorway, and the young duchess tossed aside her list of potential bills and nodded.

"Well, it's either that or he's miserable, Mother. Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the happiness of those we love."

"…You know, sometimes I still think I would have made a better thief than to stay and do all of this paperwork," Clarisse approached her daughter and picked up the large block of papers, flipping through it and scanning over the pages. "But what can I say, I'm so very used to the paperwork, now…."

"Why do I have the feeling you're attempting to hint something to me?"

"You adore children, Carmen…. Let's face it, you hate politics," Clarisse sighed and sat beside her daughter. "And you're not exactly cut out for it, Dear..."

"…I still don't understand where you're going with this…"

"Well, there'll be Dai, as well as Saiyuri and Namiko… Last generation, it was Ming who mainly looked after the children while the others were out stealing a livelihood…"

"Are you saying that I could look after the children?"

"Mm… Just a thought, however."

"But… What about you? I mean, would you honestly be content with taking care of all of these things on your own?"

"Honestly I couldn't think of a worse fate than paperwork, and that includes marriage to the Count of Cagliostro—Not your father, the other one--But if it makes you happy… Sometimes we just have to sacrifice for those we love, correct?"

Carmen giggled, and embraced her mother about the neck, "Thank you, Mother! I—I'll let Allen know about this! I'm sure he'll be thrilled, wouldn't you think?"

"Well… He'll be… Speechless, I'm sure…"

Carmen gave a small chuckle and then stood, running up the stairs to hers and her husband's room and embracing him tightly about the neck. Ally immediately found this to be suspicious, and turned her around, puzzled by her happy expression.

"Never seen you so happy to see me leave… You aren't having an affair with the stable boy or somethin', are you?"

"He's older than my grandfather would be!" Carmen laughed. "No, I… I'm going with you this time, Allen."

"…Okay… What?"

"Well, I was talking to my mother, and I realized that I do have a purpose in your gang!"

"Yeah… And you have an even more important purpose running a country," Ally answered sternly, taking her by the shoulders.

"Mother already took care of it," Carmen shrugged and pulled out her suitcase from the top of her closet. "Hrm… Perhaps I should cut my hair again…"

"And have everyone think I'm cheating on you with a guy! It's bad enough they think Ari and I were bangin' brothers back in the day!"

"Well, better them to think that then for me to be seen as a thief…"

"Yeah, for you!" Ally yelped, and watched as Carmen strode into the bathroom, a pair of scissors in hand. He looked down at his son and gave a sigh, lifting up the boy into his arms. "Your mother…. Is impossible, as times…"

"All done!" Carmen called and walked out, a smile upon her face. "How do I look?" she brushed her now much shorter hair, which still retained a set of shaggy bangs.

"…Like a rookie on my hockey team…" Ally answered with horror as he set Dai down once more.

"Mm, excellent… Well, I suppose this'll mean I'll have to buy more pants, then," Carmen said to herself. "Don't want them thinking you're dating a crossdresser, as well… Where are you going?"

"I'm getting some aspirin… My teeth are killing me," Ally mumbled, shuffling into the bathroom.

Texas:

Victor was suddenly caught off guard by a wailing, and both he and his business associate turned their heads, and Ryo apologetically shrugged and nudged the baby's swing with her foot, and then went back to her automotive magazine while the infant's crying lessened, and the continuous rocking finally lulled it back to sleep.

"You run a hard bargain, Lupin, but… What choice do I have?" the businessman sighed and shrugged.

"Glad you could see it my way, Mr. Odeki," Victor nodded and gave a small polite nod. "We both have families to feed, afterall."

"Exactly," Odeki lifted up the infant from the rocker and sighed. "You have your wife, I have my grandson. My apologies for having to have him tag along with me on this. It's just that ever since my daughter passed I've been having to look out for him."

"Mm… That's perfectly all right, my wife adores children," Victor answered, and opened the front door for Odeki. "And starting as of tomorrow night, the boy's father will be no problem to you any further."

"And thank God for it… I've been wanting to put a bullet between that bastard's eyes for years…"

"And who better to do it than one of the best?" Victor smiled and waved him off, and then closed the door behind him. "Could that brat have whined any more?"

"You're just not used to children," Ryo smiled and stood, kissing him and laughing. "What, do you have a headache now?"

"Only a sense of nausea… Have you seen that boy's father? It's like the bearded woman mated with a walrus… And Odeki's not much better looking. I can't help but to pity that child."

"Some of us don't look like our parents, you know…"

"But others of us are clones," Victor muttered, glancing in a mirror as he passed and walked down the hall into their bedroom. "Do we even have a sign anywhere which claims that we double as a babysitting service?"

"No, but I just have one big baby here, year-round," Ryo muttered as Victor collapsed onto the bed, and she followed, sitting down and laying down beside him. "My parents keep asking if we're going to have children, but you're enough trouble… Just when I think I'm over playing mommy to Fuji, too…"

"Speaking of that wench…." Victor sat up on his elbows and looked over to Ryo. "It's been almost a year since we've seen her sorry face, hasn't it?"

"One of these days you'll learn to appreciate her."

"I appreciate her not being here, would that count?"

"….You're just jealous of her."

"Jealous, of her? Yeah friggin' right…"

"Come on, Victor," Ryo laughed and punched him lightly on the shoulder, and stood as the doorbell rang. "Ugh, better get it before someone steals the paper again…"

"Mm," Victor muttered and rolled over. "I wish you would allow me to polish my gun on the front porch, just once."

"You're not going to—Oh, my God! Victor!"

"What, what's wrong!" Victor shouted and stumbled out of the bedroom, blinking and titling his head to aside as he too looked over the large bouquet of balloons which in Japanese characters spelt out, 'Desperately seeking getaway driver. Love, Fuji Lupin'.

"What in the…. Ryo, you aren't really going to—Ryoko?" Victor found she was now gone and had taken to packing her bag, and rubbed his forehead tiredly. "I should give you some time to think this over like a rational person, or… Not… I thought you were the voice of reason within your group."

"Victor, I…" Ryo sighed and stopped as she paused to finish picking out her shoes, and walked over to embrace him. "I've got to do this… Why… Why don't you come with us, hrm?"

"All of them hate me, and you know it. They'd shoot me in my sleep at the first instant."

"I know… Well, I always did like a bad boy," Ryo broke her embrace with him and kissed him lightly. "I'll try not to be too long…"

"I take it I'll see you in a year, thenm" Victor sighed, placing his hands upon her waist, kissing her and then helping her to pack.

New York:

"I'm not asking her, you ask her!" Toshiro whispered from the kitchen, pushing his younger brother forward. "It's your girlfriend!"

"She's not, and that's the problem!" Heiji hissed. "And now she's in there playing… Mommy! To some little kid!"

"Because she probably _is _the mommy, Heiji," Toshiro whispered as he watched her feed the baby while Yukiko played with Saiyuri and Odori with Namiko. The two watched as Namiko gave a giggle and attempted to jump off of the couch, only to have her plans foiled by Odori, who quickly caught the young girl with only one arm. She, Jordan, and Namiko had taken the first flight out to Japan, and now stayed in a nearby hotel, while Yukiko took up the guest bedroom.

"I…. Couldn't find out anything…" Jordan sighed and shrugged as he walked through the doors and into the kitchen. "She's keeping a tight lip on the father, whoever he may be."

"Crap, what good are you?" snapped Heiji, who began to pace back and forth in the kitchen. "Let's see… Couldn't be Jurgis's…."

"Heiji, we might not even know him!" Toshiro said as he took hold of his brother's shoulders. "And Jurgis was beheaded..."

"It could still happen!" Heiji only pulled away and huffed, "When I find him I'm going to—"

"Doorbell! Thank God…" Toshiro muttered and hurried out of the kitchen, bumping into Yukiko, who was in the midst of fetching a snack for Saiyuri. "Urm… Sorry…"

"Yeah," Yukiko nodded, and walked past him into the kitchen while he opened the front door.

"Ally?" he blinked, and had time to do little else before Ally reacted.

"Got the first flight here!" Ally smiled and placed the tall samurai into a headlock. "How in the hell are you…. Hehehe, trying for the Silver Fox look now? I thought you hated that show!"

"I do... Urm, just got a little lazy, is all… Busy with the baby, heh."

"Yeah, yeah, man. Hey, won't have to worry about that much longer…"

"Yukiko's finally come to her senses?"

"Not a chance in hell of that. But I've got something just as good…"

"Hey, who's he?" Toshiro raised an eyebrow as he looked over Ally's shoulder to the thin-framed blonde in the baseball cap, windbreaker and jeans. He then looked down at Dai, who was in the arms of the 'young man'.

"Hehe, my wife."

"Your _what?_"

"It's Carmen, idiot!" Ally sighed and removed her baseball cap, revealing the famliar soft, pale face and blonde hair.

"Woah… Well, the first samurai was a cross-dresser, and I my first lead was Maria in _West Side Story_, so why not…"

"What was your first male lead?" asked Ally, raising an eyebrow.

"I was a Nazi in _The Sound of Music_," Toshiro answered with a sigh.

"I'm not as shocked as I thought I'd be, surprisingly," Ally lifted up his suitcases and tossed them into the living room. "Hey, guys!"

"It looks like a scene out of _Kindergarten Cop_," Toshiro muttered as he watched Namiko and Saiyuri both bouncing about Jordan's legs.

"Awww…. I'm missing the party!" Ryo laughed as she walked into the doorway. "Woah… Toshiro… Very, urm, severe…"

"I'll dye it, I'll dye it! I didn't know my hair color was such a big deal to everyone nowadays!" Toshiro threw up his hands and sighed, then reached forward and embraced Ryo.

"She come around, yet?" Ryo whispered in his ear as she returned the embrace.

"What, are you kidding? She's tighter than Fort Knox!" Toshiro muttered, and broke his hold with her, and both then turned to Fuji. "Well, we've got everyone here and you've managed to go through all of the drinks in the house already, so what's up, Fuji?"

"Well…. I'm sure everyone's got questions, so I'll answer them to the best of my knowledge, but what I wanna know right now is where Ally found the cutey in the baseball cap…"

Carmen began to answer her, but she was soon cut off by Ryo, who took Fuji's baby in her arms, "Oh my God, she's adorable! Where'd you get her?"

"They were having a sale," Fuji answered with a raised eyebrow. "Listen, I…. I'll talk about that later. Right now, we've got a job to do."

"Just say when and where," Yukiko said with a smirk and tilted up her fedora. "So, where is this place, anyway?"

"Africa," Fuji answered with a stunned smile and looked at the room that had fallen into dead silence. "….What?"

"….What's in Africa?" asked Ally after a long silence.

"…I've heard there're giraffes…" Carmen replied.

"There's… Well, I owe a friend a favor," Fuji chuckled and shrugged. "He took care of both me and my daughter…"

Ryo stood and sighed, and looked down to Fuji with her free hand upon her hip. "You run off for you a year, ditch us all, come back with a baby in tow, and expect us to pack up our lives and follow you blindly into what is literally the heart of darkness?"

"….Kinda…. Yeah… I, urm, if you guys don't want to I—"

"What time's our flight leave?" Ryo asked with a tired smirk as she tilted her head to a side and brushed back her much longer wavy hair.

"It's at eight tonight, on his plane…" Fuji said with a small smile.

"Who's 'he'?" Heiji demanded, rising and causing the room to draw thief attention to him. He cleared his throat and slowly sat down, and quietly slunk down into his seat.

"..O-kayyy…. Heiji-chan, you should probably calm down," said Fuji, blinking a few times.

"Well… If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I thought that… I would begin to tag along," Carmen spoke up suddenly. "To act as the caretaker for the children…"

"Whatever you want, buddy," Fuji gave a wink which made Carmen shift in her seat. "I love a anyone who loves kids..."

"…I hope that she _hasn't _caught on…" Ally muttered to himself.

"Well, that solves my major problem… Now I should probably fill you guys in on what exactly it is we're stealing, shouldn't I?"

"Gee, that'd be nice," Yukiko muttered with a roll of the eyes, and Toshiro looked over to her with a small glare, and she only gave a bored sigh..

"White rhinos," Fuji said with a determined smile.

Silence once again fell upon the living room, which was now broken by the whaling of Fuji's child. Toshiro then cleared his throat and tilting his head to a side, "Okay now…. What?"

"White rhinoceroses…. Rhinoci?" Fuji looked over to Ryo.

"Rhinoceroses…"

"Really? Wow, that sounds awkward…"

"My Master's in English says it's that."

"Master's?"

"I finished up my courses while you went and played mommy," Ryo answered plainly. "I had to find something to do other than line dancing."

"I didn't even know you'd gone to school, Ryo-san! Anyway, point is, they're very valuable to my friend," said Fuji, clasping her hands together. "He's got a bunch of them on the grounds of his palace… Well… Did…"

"Palace?" Odori blinked. "He's royalty?"

"Well… He's the king… Anyway—"

"You were with a king!" Heiji shrieked, and Ally, who sat on the couch in front of Ishikawa, gave a shudder from the shrillness.

"Can we stay on the subject? Yeesh, and I thought _I _had the short attention span, here! Some poachers came in a few nights ago and stole thirty of them, and they're supposed to be shipping out to various zoos and private millionaires who have that much money to kick around…" Fuji explained.

"And here I was thinking that I-Pods were the hot Christmas gift… A rhino… Now_ there's_ an idea," Toshiro muttered and shook his head.

"As long as we're not off chasing white elephants, you can count us in," said Ally with a confident smile.

"Dori-chan, Jordan? What do you guys say?"

Jordan began, "Well, we—"

"We would be honored to," said Odori quickly, unsheathing her sword and examining the blade.

"Obvious who carries the bigger sword in that relationship," Ally muttered to Toshiro, who only chuckled in response while Jordan gave a dull glare.

"…Yukiko-san? What do you say?"

"You already know my answer, Fuji..."

"Ah, that's right! You lost to me, didn't you? Hehehe... And I got Toshiro-chan's 'yes', so that leaves you, Heiji-chan…"

Heiji said nothing, only gave a shrug, turned and walked out into the back yard quietly shutting the door behind him.

"Well, I'll take the awkward silence as a 'yes'," Fuji gave a weak chuckle, and rose, the infant in her arms. "And I'll say that Fujiko Hikari gives her nod, too, so we're off tomorrow!"

"Hikari…" Odori muttered to herself. "'Light'?"

Paris:

"Max… Max, calm down!" Leo sighed as he ran in following after his husband. He nodded to the receptionist in their office, and set aside his violet jacket.

"'Morning, Leo," muttered the temp receptionist as she watched the two storm in one after another.

"Good morning, Charley," Leo gave a polite smile to the brown-haired woman at the desk and watched as Maxpried open one of their already-stuffed filing cabinets. "Max… You can't go running after all of them like you used to."

"Sure I can…. You run, I'll drive," Max muttered.

The idea of Max drivinghorrified Leo even more, and he walked over to Max and leaned against the filing cabinet and watching as Max made two stacks of files on the ground; one he would have to use and one which he could care less about. After finishing this, Max turned and looked to the files and began to bend to the files he needed and nearly toppled over. Leo quickly gripped onto him about the waist and righted him up, and grabbed the files from the ground, and then began to walk back to the filing cabinet.

"What are you doing!" Max yelped, and walked over to Leo, trying to hide the pain running at this speed caused him. "Leo… No, come on… Just this once, and I'll do whatever you want!"

"We've got a meeting this afternoon already, or did you already forget that you already begged me for a baby?" Leo asked plainly, tossing he files onto the desk and walking out, giving a heavy sigh. "I'm gonna go call Myra and Nina… You stay there."

"Where else would I go?" Max rolled his eyes as he watched Leo walk out of the office to retrieve his cell phone. There suddenly came the sound of a piano playing from upstairs and then a clamor of dance steps, and Max took a wooden cane from a corner of the cluttered office and shouted as he beat the ceiling of the office. "WOULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN?" he shouted, and then collapsed back into his seat.

"You okay?" Charley stood and walked over to Max, a cup of coffee in hand. She seated herself upon the edge of the desk and watched as he began to search through the files doggedly. "…Max?"

"Hrm? Yeah…" Max muttered and tossed aside another file.

"I'm gonna go check on Leo," she patted Max on the shoulder and smiled, leaving him to his work while she met Leo halfway down the stairs of the building. "Is he all right?"

"He's just becoming obsessed, again…" Leo said with a roll of the eyes. "…Thanks again for filling in so quick after the last one left."

"I needed something to do in between jobs," Charley shrugged. "Plus, I…"

"That was a while ago, Charley," Leo closed his eyes and sighed. "Listen…. I… I've just got a lot going on right now, with the kids, and Avery, and now Max is going nuts, and we're trying for another baby, and—"

Charley pulled him in and kissed him, and Leo waited several moments before pulling her away and looking downward, "…We've got to get back…. I have a feeling he's going to bug me until I tell him we can go… Maybe if I let him do it this once, he'll learn that he's not as agile as you used to be. Good idea, right?"

"Yeah," Charley nodded, and watched Leo walk up the stairs past her, and wiped her eyes before heading up the stairs behind him.

That night, over New York:

Yukiko looked over the scene of the New York skyline tiredly as Saiyuri sat in front of her, asleep beside her cousin, while up front Fuji played catch up with Ally, Carmen, and Ryo while Hikari sat upon her lap. Heiji sat in the back typing away on his computer while Jordan and Odori played with Namiko.

Toshiro gulped and stood at her seat hesitantly before taking a seat beside her and giving a cordial smile. Yukiko rolled her eyes from beneath her fedora and then looked to Toshiro from above the brim of the gray fedora.

"It's strange not seeing you in white…"

"White's for brides and Casper," she replied quickly. "…You changed your gi colors…"

"Well, gray didn't go so well with navy," Toshiro looked down at his gi, which was now teal with a white stripe across the collar which match the white parted skirt of the traditional Japanese outfit. He only gave a nod to this, and looked upward to Yukiko, who had turned her attention back to the window and the city skyline.

"Saiyuri… She misses you a lot…"

Yukiko closed her eyes and sighed, and turned her head to Toshiro, "Do we really have to go through this again?"

"…She's not the only one who misses you…"

"I'm just glad I get to see her right now," Yukiko tilted up her fedora and looked ahead at the little girl in the seat lying beside her infant cousin. "And, well, you'll get to use those swords of yours again, right?"

"…I see you're going to totally avoid the situation, as usual…" Toshiro said darkly. "Like father, like daughter?"

"I told you to keep my dad out of any of our fights…"

"I'll be up front," Toshiro stood and walked toward the front of the private jet, and took a seat beside Ryo, who was laughing as she and the others relived past glory days.

"Why'd I even agree to come and do this?" Yukiko muttered, while having no idea that Toshiro thought the same thing as he put on a strong front in front of the rest of the gang. "Somehow, I already know that this is a friggin' mistake..."


	2. Africa

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lupin III and… Yeah, I own Lupin IV and Lupin though…. All mine, bwahaha….

Allo!

Thanks so much for the positive reviews of the first chapter as well as your kind words. They're appreciated as always . Sorry this is out so late, but I'm also working on "Restoration" as well as storyboarding an original story of mine, and there was this whole thing about managing to land myself in the hospital once again (How do I always manage to do that! I'm not even athletic!)\Speaking of which… Put some new artwork up, finally! Yay for concept art, even if it is crap! There are some early pictures on there, as well as some of my latest ones…. And boy are those early ones embarrassing, hehehe… But, oh, well, part of the creative process…. Even if it is painful to look at. Hope you guys enjoy, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter, as well!

Fun Fact of Boredom: See if you can spot the blatant comic book reference in this chapter : ) This knocks me up to a whole new level of dork, hehehe…

Chapter two: Africa (Not the continent, the Toto song)

A small country in the heart of Africa:

"The tiny kingdom of Ororo… Surrounded on all sides by tall mountains…" Fuji announced as she gently bounced along in a Jeep beside Ryo. Heiji cursed as the usually cautious getaway driver hit an especially large bump and his laptop nearly went flying.

"Sorry, Heiji," Ryo smiled well-meaningly and looked in her rearview to the Jeeps behind her, and made sure to slow down at the first sign of city life. Roads soon began to appear, filled with shoppers, merchants, camels and, much to the shock of someone as cloistered as Carmen, several elephants.

"What do you guys notice about the camels and elephants here, guys?" Fuji asked with a smirk as she leaned back in her seat, reaching over and shielding Hikari's eyes from the hot sun. She pulled a light blanket over the infant's seat, and whistled as she saw the palace up ahead, and waved her arm to the guards, who nodded and began promptly to open the large gold-encrusted doors.

"The camels and elephants… They're all albino!" Ryo realized suddenly. "I… I've never seen anything like it…"

"Mm-hm," Fuji nodded. "All of the birds and fish are, too. The people are about the only things here that aren't! Well, and us… Aside from Ally's buddy, he's the only white one here, and could probably be mistaken for an albino," Fuji smiled as they entered slowly into the palace gardens, one after the other. "They haven't figured out what does it, yet, or why it doesn't affect the people, but no one's really been able to do studies around here, either…"

"They're not big on visitors here?" Ryo concluded.

"Heh, if you guys had come here without me they probably would've shot at you, or even worse!" Fuji said with a smile. Ryo looked to her with concern, but before she could even comment on this, several guards in ornate, white guards' uniforms, gloves and helmets, carrying sabers in tow, stopped the Jeeps, and motioned for them to exit. Fuji gave a nod and waved back to the other Jeeps, and the rest of her gang exited, looking upward and the towering gold-spiraled palace. They all were taken aback, save from Fuji, as a tall black man dressed in a green, gold, and purple dashiki. He spun around Fuji several times as if she were a child, and the two began to talk hurriedly while Heiji grew increasingly green at the sight of the two.

"I was wondering if you would indeed come back!" he said in a deep laugh, kissing her atop the forehead. He then looked over her and quickly scanned the group. "And this must the group you have told me so much about!"

"Yeah, they took forever to get together…. Guys, this is a good friend of mine, Pius…"

"Pius?" Ally said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes…. My mother was a missionary… Come, let me show you around our beautiful palace!" Pius clasped his hands together and motioned for the palace doors to open. "Come, come… Where's little Hikari, hrmmm?"

"I don't think his elevator goes all the way to the top…" Toshiro whispered to Heiji, who only remained in his glaring, stoic position. Toshiro's hopeful smile faded and he sighed as he walked past the large marble columns, which acted as a border for the cerulean rivers, emerald trees and smoky purple mountains in the distance. They were led into the dining room, which was a long table adorned with various glistening delicacies. Jordan jumped as he turned to one of the pillars and came face-to-face with a large stuffed elephant head, and Toshiro gave a laugh, and headed towards the table.

"Hey, what are these, eggs?" Toshiro asked as he lifted up a bowl, Yukiko rolling her eyes at this straight-forwardness.

"Yes…. From the finest pythons in our country," Pius added.

Toshiro slowly set down the plate once again, and Heiji leaned over his brother's shoulder, "Oh my God, I think there's a tail sticking out of one of those…"

Paris, France:

"….Well, this is awkward…." Dako said as she sipped her soup, and was just as quickly ignored by all of those around her. She looked across the table to Jared Lupin, whose sported a different hairstyle, but who had not grown much in the way of height. His brown hair was slicked back and he wore jeans, Converse sneakers and a sweater. To his side was his girlfriend, who was one of the same nondescript American transfer students that rotated in and out of the home. The girl currently spoke to Jared, coming out with words as quickly as she breathed in air.

Dako rolled her eyes and finished her soup, then rose, taking Avery from his high chair and walking upward toward her bedroom. She could hear her parents arguing from their bedroom, and kissed Avery on top of his forehead, 'I'm glad you can't hear them, Avery…'

'They fighting?' Avery signed with his free hand, and Dako gave a nod and held him close, leading him into her bedroom and setting him on the bed and then walking over to her television and switching it on. 'That guy's so cute!' she smiled and turned to the TV, where a Japanese pop singer worked and screeching his lungs out.

'EW!' Avery frowned and stuck out his tongue in response. Dako ruffled his hair and laughed, and Avery fell back on the bed and attempted to work out of her grasp.

"Dako…?" she heard Leo's meek voice, and he beckoned to her. She lifted up the infant in her arms, and walked over to her father. Leo patted her on the head a moment and sighed. "Your Dad and I…. We, um…. We're going to have Ms. Kosai looking after you for a little bit…"

"Why can't Grandpa and Grandma?"

"Because they're off on a cruise, and they planned it months ahead, so I just can't go laying this on them at the very last minute," Leo answered quickly, clearing his throat and looking away uncomfortably.

Dako gave a wide, sly smile. "You don't want them to know that you're going, do you?"

"Well, urm…"

"You have Dad cook something for us to live off of, and I'll keep my mouth shut," Dako said quickly, shifting her weight and smiling. "Because Charley can't cook worth crap."

"You're killing me… And her name is Ms. Kosai to you, not 'Charley'. And don't say "crap", all right?" Leo shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I'll talk with him, but I think you may have to end up ordering pizza… How about I owe you one?"

"You already owe me six…"

"Six! Crap! Six what?" Leo yelped and watched as Dako walked over to her desk and pulled out a notepad. Leo adjusted his glasses as he glanced it over; sure enough, he did owe her several various favors. "Okay…. I'll do numbers one through three, and six…"

"What about four and five?"

"Four… They aren't in concert. And five… Well, as much as I'd love to leave Jared's latest girlfriend in the middle of Paris, no can do…"

"For my birthday?"

"If you're good… Now we've got to pack…"

"Have a good one," Dako reached upward and kissed him upon the cheek. Avery copied this, and Leo sighed and walked out of his daughter's room and back into Max's room. "Why don't we head out tomorrow? I'm so damn tired tonight, and Charley won't be by until tomorrow…"

"Mm-hm…" Max mumbled as he tossed in another pair of black slacks, followed by his trench coat.

"Max… Are you even listening?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah…." Max rose and looked to Leo with a pleasant smile. "So, what do you think? I should bring the revolver, or my Jericho?"

"Personally? I think you're insane," said Leo plainly. "I'm not sure if you're ready for this…"

"I'm fine! I can do anything!"

"Oh really, now?" Leo raised an eyebrow and seating himself on the bed, arms folded, and Max looked to Leo with a faded smile.

"I…" Max walked over to Leo and set aside his folded slacks, and placed a hand on Leo's shoulder, "I know it's… It's been a while…"

"Four months, but I can handle it," Leo said with a knowing smile as Max sat beside him on the bed. "The doctor said once you can scale a flight of stairs without having to stop to rest, then…. You'll be good enough to…"

"Damn doctor…"

"That damn doctor's one of your best friends, my dear," Leo kissed Max on the cheek and placed his hand atop Zenigata-Lupin's. "And also very close to me…"

"Yeah, but… You sure we couldn't…. Try, even?"

"Last time your back froze up and we had to call the ambulance and… Ugh, don't make me relive that…"

"How do you think I feel? I'm the one who had to go to the hospital like that!" Max said unamusedly. "Next week, maybe?"

"Next week," Leo squeezed his partner's hand, and then stood, helping Max to finish packing his suitcase. "Besides…. This thing's given us a lot of opportunity to just talk, right?"

"….And it's driving me crazy!" Max laughed and placed his hands over his face while Leo only shook his head and chuckled.

"Well…" Leo smiled over toward Max slyly. "You keep exercising, and before you know it, we'll be back to saying five words a day to one another…"

"Hey, we've always said more than five words to one another!"

"Mm… I talk and talk and occasionally you answer," Leo answered with a chuckle.

Ororo:

"And now, to dessert!"

"Actually…. I'm kinda full," Toshiro said with a weak smile.

"Ditto," Heiji said quickly, shooting a nervous smile about the table of ill-looking Lupin gang members.

"Diet," Ryo said with a polite chuckle, pushing away her plate and leaning back in her seat, trying to figure out what exactly she had been forced to eat.

After much agreement and many claiming to be on diets, the table emptied, and Pius gave a small shrug which Fuji returned, "Guess they're used to Japanese cooking…"

"Raw fish? Really now, how people can eat such things…"

"Yeah, I know…" Fuji muttered and poked at the whole egg upon her plate. She rose, and Pius did the same, following her out of the dining room and into the kitchen.

"Now why in the hell are we agreeing to this?" Ally whispered as he crept behind Heiji but in front of Toshiro.

"Because you're my best friend, and Toshiro's my brother… And tall," Heiji answered as he stepped in front of another bush for camouflage while the three could hear Pius and Fuji in the distance.

"Ugh… Couldn't you have gotten Jordan for this!" Toshiro hissed in a whisper.

"Nah…. Blond people freak me out…"

"Well, the solves the mystery as to why he hates Max," Ally muttered, and did a double take. "Wait, my wife's a blonde!"

"Shush!" Heiji whispered and waved at the two, and Toshiro merely gave a roll of the eyes. "What do you guys see?"

"Heiji, I'm five-foot-five…. From this height? Not much," Ally answered blandly.

Jordan had just finished revisiting his terrible lunch when he spied the three in the garden and approached them, a hand upon his stomach still, "Hey, guys, what are you up to—"

"Quiet!" Heiji took hold of Jordan and placed a hand on the tall man's mouth.

"Yeesh, man, you're makin' the most noise here!" Toshiro muttered and glanced over the top of the shrub.

"Where's Ryo when you need her…?" Ally murmured, "She's a lip-reading pro!"

"Wonder how she got that way," Toshiro chuckled.

Ally turned to his brother-in-law, "It took years to learn to tolerate you. Don't ruin it for yourself. Jordan, you have any idea where she is?"

"Doing the same thing I was, last I saw," Jordan answered, giving a small shake of his head. "Whoever taught those people how to cook is—"

"Would you shut up!" Heiji begged.

"What, I'm not allowed to talk?" Jordan said with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" Heiji hissed, and turned his attention back to Fuji.

"I just… I know he hates me," Fuji sighed as she seated herself beside Pius upon a stone bench in the garden.

"No…. He does not. If he is half the man you make him out to be then he will be nothing but understanding. If he had not been such, he would have never agreed to meet you here, right? Right!"

"I… Hey, do you keep hearing something, or am I finally going bonkers?"

"Perhaps it is the birds… He is a lucky man to have you. You see, local law states that I may win you over by beheading him, if need be… But I am a gentleman."

"Heh, I think you're screwed, buddy," Toshiro said worriedly, looking to his younger brother.

"Please tell me you're not going to duel him…" Fuji moaned.

"What, this is improper, too? And they say Japan is a country of honor…"

"Yeah, but you're thinking of friggin' samurai!"

"Is it my fault that most of my education comes from those old films?" Pius laughed and patted her upon the back.

"I ought to get my bow and arrow and kill him right here…" Heiji said through gritted teeth.

"Woah, five 'o clock," Jordan nudged Toshiro and pointed back to the palace, where Yukiko now sat with a cigarette in hand. "When did she start smoking again!"

"When I told her to get out…" Toshiro answered.

"Wait, you told her to get out?" Jordan did a double take to Toshiro and looked over at Yukiko. "You gave her up?"

"Listen, it's complicated…." Toshiro whispered.

"Hey, my problems right now, not your guys, all right?" Heiji hissed to the two tall man, turning to them.

"Jeeze, two days back together and it's already a mess…" Ally shook his head as he watched Toshiro and Jordan walked off. "Hey, guys…"

"No! You're staying!" Heiji snapped, grabbing Ally by the shirt collar and pulling him back.

"Now what the hell do you mean you kicked her out?" Jordan asked as he and Toshiro continued to walk down one of the garden paths.

"Well… Thins didn't work out… You guys knew we were divorced!" Toshiro said, stopping and turning to Jordan. "What's it matter to you, anyway?"

"A lot!" Jordan snapped. "It didn't work out? You guys have a kid!"

"Odori had a kid with another guy, but I don't hear you complaining about it."

"That's different!" Jordan snapped. "What in the hell happened with you guys?"

"She… She's just worked obsessed, and I guess I was an idiot for wanting a little normalcy, or so she told me," Toshiro snapped.

"….You miss her a lot, don't you?"

"It was the biggest mistake of my life along with accidentally grabbing Ming's hair dye," Toshiro admitted with a murmur, looking away from Jordan.

"….I'll help you get her back, then," Jordan said confidently.

"What? You… You'd do that for me? Why?"

"Eh, let's just say I think we share a lot in common, besides height," Jordan patted him on the shoulder. "Eh, why don't you give it a go?"

"What, right now? No way, she'd kill me!"

"Nah… Then who would raise your kid? Now c'mon!" Jordan pushed him forward and gave him a reassuring smile, and Toshiro only gave a moan and trudged forward toward the palace.

"Urm… Nice weather, eh?" Toshiro cleared his throat as he leaned against one of the pillars and smiled to Yukiko, who only looked to him with a bored glance. "The…. The gray looks good on you. Why the change, anyway?"

"I'm not changing my mind and there's nothing you or Jordan can do to make me see it any differently," Yukiko said with a frown.

"Yuki… Please… Saiyuri misses you, and…. I miss you, too…"

"What, you find out there's not a big demand for gray-haired single fathers?" Yukiko returned quickly placing her hands in her pockets and walking away from him. She looked over her shoulder to him, a frown upon her face and her eyes glaring at him from beneath her fedora. "You told me you didn't need me, if you recall."

"Yeah, and… I'm sorry."

"Sorry ain't a big enough word for the kind of stuff you said to me."

"You…. Yukiko, I…"

"Just leave me alone, all right? I'm gonna go visit our daughter," Yukiko snapped, storming away from Toshiro.

"….That could've gone a lot better," Jordan said with a flinch as he approached Toshiro. "What in the hell did you say to her, Toshiro?"

"….It's what she started…." Toshiro said quietly. "And it… It started over nothing, is the thing!"

New York, eight months ago:

"I can't believe you did that again!"

"What, was I supposed to leave her at a babysitter's!" Yukiko demanded with a disbelieving laugh. "I had no choice, I had to take her with me!"

"It was to a talk with a mobster! Now he knows you've got a kid, and what if he wants to turn on you? He'll use Saiyuri against you," Toshiro said firmly.

"He wouldn't do that, I've known him for years," Yukiko said reassuringly. "He was one of my best friends."

Toshiro thought this over for a moment and blinked, "…How's he your friend?"

"…Oh my God… You don't think I'm… You jackass!" Yukiko said with her mouth agape. "Do you think I'm sleeping with someone behind your back? Are you that insecure?"

"It'd explain why you haven't with me for the past _month_," Toshiro said, and Yukiko fell silent, staring at him intensely. She gulped dryly, and then moved toward the door.

"You stupid…. Moron! You think I don't get tired from trying to be a mom and have a career!"

"You don't need one!" Toshiro held out his hands and shouted back to her, and his shoulders slumped as he heard Saiyuri begin to cry. "You should just… Try staying home, maybe… Who do you have to prove yourself to, anymore? We get it…. You're a gunslinger and a badass… And you're thirty-three, Yukiko… We've got enough to live on for the rest of our lives and maybe even enough to consider giving Saiyuri a baby brother or sister."

"Soooo damn intent on having that name carry on, aren't you?" she said w it ha shake of the head. "That all the hell you care about? Your damn name? How backwards are you!"

"It's not just about the name…" Toshiro sighed. "Yukiko, I… I really just want to settle down and have a family with you. I'm almost forty; I don't want to run around anymore."

"Guess we had different ideas of what we wanted then, huh?" Yukiko said with a stern glare, and exited the house while Toshiro went to a weeping Saiyuri.

Present day, Ororo:

"Damn it, let us through!" Max growled, flashing a badge at the guard. "We are detectives assigned to the Lupin the Fourth case!"

"You are no longer Interpol," the guard said with glare as he looked down to the two much shorter men. "The healing village is a ways away, if you are attempting to find a person to look after you leg, sir."

"It's my spine that's broken, not my leg, and not this badge!" Max shouted.

"And not your mouth," said the guard lightly.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here? Zenigata-sama? What're you yelling about now? Ari… Ew… What's with the hair?" Fuji now stood leaning against the gates, smiling at the livid Max and the embarrassed Leo.

"YOU!" Max bolted for Fuji, only to trip and be caught by Leo, who gave a worried sigh as he looked over his husband.

"You're making yourself look like an idiot," Leo whispered. "Please just… Stop…"

"Aww… They've suffered enough. C'mon and let them in…" Fuji smiled and pulled back on the gate, keeping hold of it as it swung back and smiling as the two passed, led by a guard carrying a saber close behind them.

"I'll sooooo get her for this before the day's out," Max said through gritted teeth as he watched Fuji swing back and forth against the gates.

"Hehehe…. All in a day's work. Now to squeeze information on my big brother about what exactly he and blondie are doing here, and why after all these years he's bringing that stupid haircut out of the fashion graveyard it belongs in…." Fuji smiled as she hopped off of the gate. "Oh… But first…." she spied Carmen from a distance, in one of the many gardens. "Time to work a little Fujiko Lupin magic!"

Carmen had just seated herself and leaned back on a stone bench when she heard a rustling, and turned her attention to a fountain, where Fuji now sat, a smile upon her face. Carmen bolted up from her seat, but Fuji rose just as quickly, seating the blonde down once more upon the stone bench.

"You're a new member of the group, I noticed…"

"Well, urm, you could say that…" Carmen leaned back as Fuji leaned inward to her, giving a nervous chuckle. "Fuji, listen, I—"

"Hey, no talking. Sometimes, words ruin it," Fuji said quietly, placing a finger upon Carmen's lips. "Now… How am I so sure I can trust you?"

"Well, I… You see…"

"What'd I just say? You know… I can tell by your eyes that we've known one another for quite some time," Fuji said in a whisper, leaning in closer. "They're a beautiful shade of blue…"

"Oh my GOD, Fuji!" Ally stood agape as he ran up to the tense duo from his hiding place with a highly-aggravated Heiji, pulling Carmen away from the thief. "That's my wife, damn it! And what in the hell are Zenigata and Lupin doing here!"

"Eh, I invited them… Thought they could use the air…They both need to get out of the house every once in a while, keeps 'um sane, I find it," Fuji asked, sitting back and not once looking to Carmen, who clung onto Ally for dear life itself. "Hey, no problem, Carmen! I knew it was you… I was just messing with you…"

"You what!" Carmen yelped, lunging toward her. Ally quickly pulled back his wife, keeping a hand firmly upon her shoulder.

"Don't… Don't go killing her, all right?" Ally said nervously. "I'm sure she was just joking…. Maybe…."

"Hey, I'm gonna go check on my bro and the little love of his life… I mean Max…" said Fuji, ruffling Carmen's hair and whistling as she hopped away from the two.

"…Your friends frighten me deeply, Allen," said Carmen with a few numb blinks.

"Frighten _you_? You're the one she's afraid of, and quite frankly I don't blame her any… She still hasn't forgotten that punch you dealt her all those years ago."

Fuji continued her whistling as she walked into the palace, and found her daughter in the arms of one of the attendants. After taking Hikari, she waved to Leo and Max as she passed them once more, and Max made another run for her, but both he and Leo stared wide-eyed at the baby in Fuji's arms. She tossed the little girl up in the air gently and caught her once more, laughing all the way up to her room.

"What a mess already, Hikari-chan!" Fuji said with an amused chuckle. "And I really thought I'd given them enough time, too, you know that? Maybe this was a mistake, but… How in the world am I supposed to get a bunch of rhinos by myself? Right? Right."

The little girl said nothing, and this was expected. Fuji gave a chuckle and bent down, kissing her daughter on the forehead, and then lifted her into her arms and resumed her whistling as she walked back out into the main room of the palace, Hikari now in tow.

"Are these two as they say? Do they actually belong to you?" Pius looked to Fuji tiredly and then back to the still-bickering Leo and Max, and Max immediately whipped his head about to shoot Pius a glare.

"Hey, buddy, Max Lupin doesn't belong to anyone!" Max snapped to Pius, and the guards inched their spears closer to the inspector, and Leo gripped onto his partner's coat jacket worriedly.

"Lupin? You are… Lupin the Fourth?" Pius looked to Fuji curiously, and she gave a chuckle.

"No, the one who looks like Lupin, is the former Lupin the Fourth… The blond is the former Lupin the Fourth's current husband… They're, urm… 'Buddies'…"

"Ah! So these are the two you have been telling me about! I was raised by merely my father, so I can imagine the joys of your children having two fathers!"

"….I think this guy's a lit-tle off his cheetah-print rocking chair," Leo said as he began to back away, only to be poked in the upper back by the guards' spears. "Heh…. Hehehe…."

"Yeah, that's Leo and Max…" Fuji said with a smirk, tilting her head to a side and laughing at Max's face, which was red with anger. "Something wrong, Inspector?"

"Detective! And I see you're into kidnapping children, now," said Max with a frown.

"Nah, this is all mine," Fuji kissed Hikari and cradled her gently, and chuckled and Max and Leo's stunned expressions.

"….You… You're…." Max blinked several times.

"Mom's so going to kill you for not telling her, Fuji!" Ari said with a frown.

"Not if you can't talk!" shouted Fuji in return.

"Gentlemen… Could you please explain your presence here?" Pius asked tiredly.

"We're here to make sure she doesn't steal anything from you, your highness!" Max explained, flashing his badge to Pius and then frowning at Fuji.

"But she's stealing something which was stolen from me, so therefore she has broken no laws, and even if she had I would very well be able to override such laws given my position in power as opposed to your mere international diplomacy which is voided out by higher powers such as myself," Pius said, which was ended with a smile.

Max merely gave a blank look to this, and slowly shifted his eyes to Leo, and Leo sighed and adjusted his glasses, "He means that we're wrong."

"Yeah, right! Zenigatas are never wrong!" Max snapped.

"A, you're a Zenigata-Lupin, and B., you are," Fuji said with a sigh. "Now are you guys going to hold your niece, or do I have to make you?"

Leo looked downward to the small fidgeting infant and took her in his arms, then looked upward to his sister, "So, what poor sucker do you have paying your child support, Fuji?"

"Hehe, that's for me to know and you not to," Fuji answered with a chuckle, sticking out her tongue. "Now it's been a whole damn year since I've seen you guys, and I'd like a little more catching up and a little less fighting. C'mon, you guys wanna grab your bags and I'll show you upstairs?"

"Urm… They wouldn't happen to have an elevator here, would they?" Leo looked to Max worriedly, and Max only shot him a glare.

"I can walk a set of lousy stairs," Max snapped.

"Yeah, why couldn't… You?" Fuji looked down and then noted his crutch, and Max turned from her as he felt his eyes upon him, hiding his crutch behind his trench coat.

"Let's go," Max said, nodding toward the main stairway and reaching for his bags.

"Do not worry, my men shall handle this," Pius said, placing a hand upon Max's shoulder. Max shrugged him off, and continued, grumbling on his way up the stairs.

"You probably want to know what happened, huh?" Leo sighed and turned to his sister, who only nodded. "Come on… You're right, we've got some talking to do… On both parts. As well as some planning."

"Planning? Say what now?"

"I heard that you're stealing something back, so… What is it? And what's in it for you?"

"Answer one… White rhinos… And answer two? Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing? Wait—Rhinos? Like… With horns, rhinos?"

"Mm-hm, exactly!"

"Wha…. How do you…?"

"I have no idea, all I know is that I owe Pius big time, and this is my opportunity to pay him back… And make my own awesome comeback."

"Are you sure you're ready to be a mom and also go back to work?"

"Eh, well, you've done a good job of it over the years," Fuji shrugged, and Leo only rolled his eyes. "How're you and Tiny Tim doing, anyway?"

"Listen, don't call him that, all right? He's… He's really sensitive about that…"

"Why do you think I didn't say it to his face? So, what's the story there?"


	3. Twist of the Knife

DISCLAIMER: I don't own _Lupin III…_ But I do have a sparkling personality, the tendency to repeat myself, a general likeability, and the tendency to repeat myself.

Oh my God, an update!

That's about how it is right now, neh? I think that more than a few were surprised that not one, but both of my now-running stories. Guess the little creativity fairy struck me. Wish she'd stop by more often, hehe. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, andddd I'm not gonna say "I hope I start to get these out earlier" because that just seems to be a jinx for me. Aw, crap! Eh, well…. Enjoy, all the same!

p.s.: Added a lot more pictures! A whole page of artwork including a picture of Mamoru Pycal, early concepts of grown-up Avery and Jared, and even another picture of Jigen in drag, ala 'A Mile in my Heels'.

Fun Fact of Boredom: Fuji seems to have a mild obsession with the old school anime _Cutey_ _Honey_. This is because the voice actress for Fujiko in Japan is also Cutey Honey's voice actress, and, well, I always thought that Fuji would sound like her mother.

Chapter three: Twist of the Knife

"So, Mister Toshiro…."

"Mister…. King, I guess…." Toshiro returned, glancing to Pius.

"Pius… Simply Pius," the king turned to Toshiro and smiled. "You appear apprehensive!"

"Listen… I know you're tryin' to help, but I just wanna grab my daughter and head back to New York… It's about time to start decorating for Halloween," Toshiro grumbled, and Pius stopped him, placing his hands upon his shoulders. Toshiro gave a bizarre look and tilted his head, and then looked slowly to the left and then to the right.

"I know what it is you need, exactly what it is!" Pius said with a wide smile, patting him on the shoulders. "Come! Follow me!"

Toshiro hesitated a moment, and then nodded and followed Pius into the palace, deep into the marble innards of the large castle. He was finally led into a room decorated in red, pink, and purple silk and golden furniture. The women who sat lounged throughout the room looked over to Toshiro, giggling at him. The samurai's face reddened immediately, and Pius patted him roughly upon the back.

"You can have your pick," Pius explained, undazed.

"Wai-wait what?" Toshiro yelped, pulling away the arms of one woman who had wrapped them about his waist. "You… You're joking, right?"

"What, you're not looking for a woman any longer?"

"What! NO! I… I'm not looking for any woman, or any man, either!" Toshiro snapped, and pulled away another woman. "No. Bad touch. Nothing below the—What in the hell don't you get about 'no'?"

"You seem quite… 'Uptight' for an American," Pius said with concern, speaking to the woman in his native tongue and shoeing her away. She gave another giggle and ran back to her seat, the other girls joining in the laughter.

"Who… Who are these girls?" Toshiro gulped, adjusting his gi while the girls continued to primp.

"They are entertainers in the palace," Pius explained, and nudged Toshiro while giving a knowing smile. "Quite young and all very available…"

"Listen, you're being… More than generous… Woah… But, I really… I can't go and do this, I, urm… I'm reallyyyy not ready for that," Toshiro explained with a nervous gulp.

"I see. Perhaps after a nap," Pius said with a smile. "You know…. I was just a boy when I met your father, Mr. Ishikawa."

"What? You knew my dad?" Toshiro tilted his head to one side as he followed Pius down the hall.

"Yes… He had a similar reaction to yours… Although I recall his wife reaching up and striking him from the back of the head…"

"Yeah, sounds like my mom," Toshiro chuckled.

"How is she doing? She and your father were so young when they came… It's been years…" Pius said with a shake of the head.

"Eh, they were in their late twenties… Guess that's old to me, too, now," Toshiro said with a shrug.

Pius stopped and looked to Toshiro with a frown, "No… They were about teenagers, then. Their parents brought them here… From what I recall, they were merely a weeks away frown marriage…"

"Wait… So that means… He came here with _my _mother," Toshiro said in a low voice. "And she was probably already pregnant…"

"My," Pius blinked, "your family appears as complicated as the Lupins!"

"You have no idea," Toshiro shook his head. "Hrm… Pius, what were they even doing here?"

"…I was eight. I was more concerned with horseback riding, at that age," Pius replied. "But, they left several things here, if you'd like to see."

"Yeah! I'd love to!" Toshiro said with a wide smile.

The jungle outside of the palace:

"Damn it…" Yukiko shot another large spider away, this one merely from Heiji's head. Ishikawa nearly fell over in response to this, and panted as he looked back to Yukiko.

"What… The hell…."

"That thing was about to suck your face off. If you'd look up from you _World of Warcraft _game long enough you'd realize," Yukiko snapped in return, flicking away a cigarette. Odori sliced the cigarette in half as she also cut through a snake that had been inches away from Yukiko's fedora.

"I could say the same to you," Odori answered gravely, sheathing her sword once more.

"What _are _you doing, anyway, Heiji?" Ryo glanced over Heiji's shoulder as Odori worked her way back to the front, and continued to slice through the dense jungle beside Ally, who wiped his forehead and then resumed chopping.

"I'm trying to see if those poachers have a computer, maybe have a connection set up… And if they've got a GPS system set up, well…Then they'll be like sitting ducks, now won't they?"

"Hrm…" Odori stopped suddenly, and Fuji, who had been directly behind her, bumped into the small samurai.

"Ow! What the hec, Dori!" Fuji yelped, taking a step back from the samurai.

"They're Asian," Odor muttered.

"What, are you looking for another boyfriend?" Fuji grumbled. "I was convinced you were strictly on white guys, now."

"I'm biracial," Jordan said quickly, but this fell upon the silent and annoyed ears of Fuji and Odori.

"Those men… Look, through the brush," Odori whispered, crouching down and peering through the thick ferns.

"Japanese?" Leo blinked and pushed up his glasses.

"They look like ninja…" Odori muttered.

"Ninja poachers… Hee hee…." Heiji commented without looking up from his computer. This was met with a frown by the others, and they then turned their attention back to the men surrounding the jeeps. They were dressed entirely in black, and spoke roughly to one another, pointing in different directions and having a harsh argument. During this time Odori noted there was a large white symbol upon their backs, and the samurai cocked her head in an attempt to get a better look at the traditional uniforms they wore.

Fuji looked over her shoulder to Yukiko, Ryo, Odori, Jordan, Heiji, and Ally, "Hey, game plan. Dori-chan, you stay here. Yukiko, Jordan, Ally, you three circle them. Heiji, you get up in that tree and try to block any signals they may be trying to send out… And try to see if they're sending any outgoing messages, too, while you're at it. Ryo-san, you go back and get the jeep."

"What about me?" asked Odori, looking upward to Fuji.

"Come out swinging if they're not friendly," Fuji replied, adjusting her jacket and not even glancing to Leo's stunned expression.

"That's your plan!" Leo hissed, pulling back his sister. "Talking to them?"

"Jeeze, and I thought you were the pacifist!" Fuji grumbled. "When did we start doing a role reversal, here? Christ, don't tell me I'm gonna end up doing cartoons, too."

"It's just a cartoon! They started a show with puppets, too," Leo said defensively.

Fuji paused and gave a hard glare to her brother, "You are so low on my cool list right now, I—"

"Would you keep quiet!" Odori snapped. "I'm trying to listen to them!"

"They're speaking in gibberish," Fujiko whispered, frowning.

"No, they're just speaking in a form of Japanese," Leo hissed. "If I could get closer, I might be able to tell what they're saying!"

Fuji looked to her brother and smiled, "…Then we'll get you closer…"

After a few moments later, the men at the jeeps all frowned as they heard a rustling from the bushes, and drew their machetes and swords, and stanced themselves. All relaxed as they saw it was merely one of their own, an identical man in a black outfit stumbled out, and they merely rolled their eyes and brushed him away.

Leo looked over his shoulder to Fuji pleadingly and she shooed him on, and Leo took a few more hesitant steps forward, leaning against the jeep casually and nodding to the other men.

"Why is it the only time he looks gay is when he tries to play straight?" Fuji moaned to herself, slapping her forehead. Upon looking upward, her eyes fell upon several large bags in the back of one of the jeeps, and a smile came upon her face.

Heiji was now perched up in a tree, and tossed down a small fruit, causing it to impact with Fuji's head. She growled and clutched onto the aching area, and looked upward to him with a glare, "Don't even think about that stuff!" he whispered.

"How'd you even know I was—"

"Because I know you, Fuji," Heiji answered in an as-a-matter-of-factly tone.

"So we get this, and we get back to the camp!" the leader of the group said to the men, sheathing his sword. He looked to Leo and frowned, leaning inward to examine a nervous Lupin. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

"I've got a really average face!" Leo reassured him with a chuckle and a smile, and couldn't help to look upon the boss's features and think the same himself.

"All right, let's move out!" he shouted, his voice cracking in the midst of this. Some of the others gave a chuckle, and he spun back around, growling and smacking them on the side of the head. "Is there anything else you wanted to say about my voice!"

"N-no, sir!" the men whimpered, and Leo remained silent, with his eyes widening as he realized the young man was really a boy in his mid-teens.

'_What's a kid doing, running this!'_ Leo thought to himself in awe.

"Hey, you going to gawk all day or are we going to a get a move-on!" the boy shouted. "Old man, can you hear me!"

It took Leo a moment to realize the 'old man' was him, and he tried to hide his deep insult as he hopped into one of the jeeps and motioned for Fuji to back off.

"He's merely a child," Odori said as she appeared out of the brush, the others gathering about her.

"What in the hell did Ari think he was doing!" Fuji snapped, bawling her fists and slamming her heel down. This sound resulted in a loud "crunch!" noise, to which Fuji shuttered and looked down. And when she saw the large spider impaled by her high heel, Fuji Lupin gave a loud scream, which quickly had to be stifled in order not to get caught.

Later that night:

Leo had been driven to the camp of the bandits, and sat in the midst of many who were either now sleeping or drunk.

The leader of the bandits eyed Leo suspiciously, and stood from his place in front of his tent and then over Leo, "You're the only one I haven't seen drink anything all night…"

"Ulcers," Leo responded in a well-meaning shrug.

"…Why do I not remember seeing you get on the plane with us?"

"Like I said, I have a face that's easy to forget," Leo explained as he looked into the fire momentarily and then back to the leader, who only narrowed his eyes and turned away from Lupin.

The bandit leader climbed into his tent and sighed as he laid back upon the tatami mat he had laid out, giving a yelp of surprise as he realized there was another figure beside him.

"A dream, or your lucky day?" Fuji said with a smile, sitting up and resting with one hand supporting her. "One way to find out, huh?"

"Wh-wha?" the frazzled leader looked her up and down, the older woman in long lavender nightgown and bathrobe. "How did you—What are you doing here!"

"Mm, probably hoping the statue of limitations here is a little different than in Japan or the U.S.," Fuji answered absently.

"If—If you don't leave this instant, I'll get my guards on you!" snapped the leader, crawling into one of the corners of t he tent and watching in a panic as Fuji followed. "How'd you even get here!"

"Does it matter? All I know is, they're all drunk, and no one can hear you scream in a jungle already full of weird noises," Fuji said, placing a hand about the waist of the shorter man and smiling. "So no one would know the difference…"

"I still don't know how you got here," snapped the leader.

"You know, sometimes, it just doesn't matter," Fuji said sweetly, and as her hand trailed up, Fuji's blood ran cold, and her eyes widened, "Oh my God, are those…?"

The leader then looked away, his face flushed completely red.

"You… You're a girl…" Fuji blinked. "That, or you're just plain weird…"

"You're the one who's in a negligee in the middle of the African jungle," snapped the leader.

"Touché… Jeeze, I'd like to say that this is the first time that this has happened to me…. Should I take this as a sign to go after girls, now?"

The leader only looked horrified, and adjusted her top, "Who in the hell are you, anyway?"

"Why, Lupin the Fourth, my dear!" Fuji said with a wide smile.

"But he's a man…"

"Eh… Debatable," Fuji said, looking away, clearing her throat and then smiling to the young woman. "Well, what's your name, kid?"

"I'm not a kid," she said defensively, brushing away her bangs and continuing her glare centered at Fuji.

"But… You dress like a guy. So are you…."

"I'm not that, either! Now if you excuse me, I have some guards to fetch, to chop off that head of yours," the leader snapped, standing.

"I don't think so," Fuji smirked, leaning back and chuckling.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means your tent's surrounded by my men…"

"And women!" came the snap of Ryo's voice. The ninja leader spun her head about, and then growled.

"What do you want from us, anyway?"

"I want to know why you're here, why you're bugging my friend, and, perhaps most importantly, who the hell you are exactly."

"I am Chiyose, of the Rat Clan…"

"Aw, you're Chiyo-chan!" Fuji said with a wide grin, causing Chiyose to blush. "So, is Miss Sakaki _really_ that tall?"

"Would you shut up! The rumors about you being obnoxious are true!" snapped Chiyose.

"Oh, rumors? What are some of the other rumors, huh, huh?"

"That you're a skilled thief… And a complete whore."

"Wow, so they really do think I'm a good thief, neh? Cool!"

"Your brain must look like a sieve," said Chiyose plainly. "You have my name and I've yet to kill you, so what else could you possibly want of me?"

"You out of here," Fuji answered, sitting up in the tent and giving a cocky grin.

"That I cannot do… I must get those animals."

"Yeah, but why? I mean, are you selling them to zoos or something?"

"Our clan is sick, including our current leader, and that who is supposed to be our leader in her place has not answered our calls… Not that we would know where to find him, at this point," Chiyose explained quietly.

"Your leader? What's her name?"

"His… It's Goemon Ishikawa, the fourteenth," Chiyose answered.

"WHAT!" was collectively heard, and the group stuck their heads through the opening of the tent.

"I… Take it you know him…" Chiyose said quietly.

"Yeah! I was married to that rat bastard!" Yukiko snapped.

"…She meant that with respect to your clan," Fuji explained to a stunned Chiyose.

"You… You know him….?" Chiyose said with a blink, and gasped. "Of course! You're Lupin the Fourth, so you must know Goemon!"

"Yeah, all of them," Fuji answered with a smirk. "Well, the living ones…"

"Yeah, she's always this weird," Ryo explained, "we dropped her from a bridge when we were kids."

"Dropped? You said you slipped and I fell!"

"Urm…"

"You little bitch!" snapped Fuji.

"Would you guys knock it off?" Leo sighed tiredly, and looked to Chiyose, pushing up his glasses. "What if I told you we could set up a meeting with you?"

"You… Would really help me like that?" Chiyose said with wide eyes, and Fuji looked to Leo with a frown.

"Better stay away from this one… She's not legal, and you've got enough on your plate," Fuji said warningly to her brother.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ally inquired, looking over to a flustered Leo. Lupin only cleared his throat, and turned away from the tent.

"Wait… You're dressed like a Clan member… How'd you get that outfit?" Chiyose inquired to Leo, who faltered and merely gave a nervous smirk.

"He borrowed it, from Goemon," Ally said quickly, not wanting to reveal the fact that it had actually been stolen from a clan member he and Jordan had knocked out cold and left in the middle of the jungle.

"Oh, I… I see…" Chiyose blinked, and Fuji cleared her throat and smiled at Chiyose.

"My dear Rat Clan leader, I assure you that whatever problem it is you have, that Lupin the Fourth will be able to solve it!"

"Here she goes again," Ryo said with rolled eyes.

"Somehow, this always gets us into trouble," Ally murmured.

Fuji ignored this completely, and smiled, "Miss Chiyose, would you give me twenty-four hours to solve your problem in exchange for you returning all of those nice rhinos to King Pius?"

"I… How am I sure I can trust you?" asked Chiyose, eyeing Fuji.

"Mm… Some collateral would be appropriate now, wouldn't it?" Fuji looked aside and thought for a moment, and then clapped her hands together and smiled. "How about if I can't come through for you you can chop off my head, eh?"

"WHAT!" all yelped and looked to Fuji, stunned, including Chiyose.

"Yup. If I can't pull through, this'll allll be yours!" Fuji said confidently.

"You're officially insane," Odori said with narrowed eyes.

"Heh, try being related to her," Jordan muttered.

"Try having to share a womb with her," Leo added.

"Ah, don't worry about that, Dori-chan! A few more months and you _will _be family!" Fuji said with a wide smile, causing Odori's usually half-closed eyes to shoot wide open.

"Why am I thinking you're only realizing this now?" Fuji asked with raised eyebrows.

"Please… Could you just get me a meeting with Goemon?" asked Chiyose with a hopeful smile.

"…Yeah… We can do it," said Fuji with a nod.

Back in the palace:

"…You're worried about them too, aren't you?" Carmen said quietly as she bounced Dai upon her knee while Max paced back and forth restlessly in front of one of the many open windows of the palace.

"I don't like being out of the battle," Max muttered.

"What happened… I mean, to your… That is…" Carmen's eyes shifted nervously, and Max sighed took a seat beside her.

"It's fine… I get that a lot, anyway," Max said quietly to her as he watched Dai plop onto her lap and giggle. "It was a couple of months ago… Five, maybe…. And we'd just finished a big case… One of our first as detectives… Well, we were in the middle of chasing the suspects down in this old mall that was set for demolition… Never saw the guy coming. Got shot in the spine, and I was told it was a miracle that I was alive. Months of therapy later, it's a good day when I can walk the stairs in my own house without having to take a breather."

Carmen looked downward to the ground and then upward to Max, "So why did you come on this trip, then?"

"Eh, same reason you came," Max said with a smirk. "Love turns us into morons… I had a hard enough time convincing him to even give me a chance… So you really think I'd let him go? Nah… No way I'm letting him out of my sight."

"That sounds… Quite beautiful," Carmen said quietly. "I… Wish I could have done that for Allen, when he…."

"Yeah, I heard…. And who hasn't, with Fuji?" Max asked with a shake of the head.

"…I haven't," Carmen answered, "….Why? Have you?"

"Should princesses even really be talking about this sort of thing?"

"Mm… I see that that's a 'yes'," Carmen said with a chuckle. "She really has quite a charm about her, doesn't she?"

"I see that's a 'wow, I'm jealous'," Max looked her over, and Carmen brushed back her hair.

"I'm not… Honestly, when I look at her, I'm more saddened, than anything…"

"Sadness for the fact you only gave her a black eye…" Max said beneath his breath, causing Carmen to do a double-take.

Meanwhile, in another area of the palace, Toshiro was continuing to sort through the belongings his parents had left behind so long ago, while Pius looked onward with a smile upon his face.

"I… I can't believe this…." Toshiro said with a disbelieving laugh as he pulled out a black kimono. "This must've been my old man's!"

"Old? Yes, Goemon must indeed be quite aged, now…. But I remember him as being such a young man!"

"What? Oh, you mean the hair, heh," Toshiro brushed his fingers through his hair and smirked. "Well, this is from… Well, a lot of regrettable things… I guess that it's just a reminder."

"All things considered, you sound much older than your father ever did…" said Pius with some concern.

"I…" Toshiro turned and began to answer, but there was a loud shout that was recognizable as Carmen, and both went running, Toshiro wearing one of his father's kimonos as he sought out Carmen.

"I'm… I'm really sorry about this…" Max said with a sigh of embarrassment as he looked down to the pinned Carmen.

"It's all right, you just caught me off guard," Carmen answered as she attempted to slide out from beneath Max, who had accidentally pinned her as she had tried to help him stand. Fortunately, the children were in their playpen, and none were injured, although some were crying from the surprise of the noise. "Is your back all right?"

"No, I think I froze it up," Max huffed, and gave another groan as he attempted to climb off of her, finding this futile.

"Well, you're not that heavy…" Carmen muttered. "All right, now… How about you move your arms, and then I… Well, no, that doesn't work…. Perhaps we should wait for help?"

"And have Ally kill me? Yeah freakin' right! I'd rather end up in a wheelchair again!" Max grumbled and paused for a moment. "Okay, do you think you could push me off of you?

"But wouldn't that hurt you?"

"I'm almost a hundred and forty pounds… Trust me, I'll have a lot to land on," Max replied, and Carmen placed her hands on Zenigata-Lupin's shoulders, and attempted to flip Max off of her. This only resulted with Max falling harder onto her, knocking his forehead into hers and both yelping at the pain.

"What in the _hell_?" came Ally's octave-higher-than-Jigen's voice, and Max shut his eyes as he prepared for what was to come.

"Allen, he simply fell," Carmen explained as she looked upward at the group who looked back down at the two in surprise. "I was trying to help him stand…"

"I'm so damn sure," Ally grumbled as he gripped Max by the shoulders and stood him up. Max gave a yell that caught even Ally off guard, and lent upon his crutch as he waited for the pain to quell.

"Jesus Christ, Ally!" Toshiro said with an open mouth as he and Pius ran to the scene. The samurai failed to notice Chiyose, and the clan leader gave a small smirk as she caught sight of him. "What in the hell did you do to the poor bastard!"

"I was just… I mean, I…" Ally sputtered as Leo ran to Max. "I… I didn't mean for him… What I mean, is…. Aw, damn it!"

"Max, are you all right?" whispered Leo quietly.

"Yeah, I…. I'm fine," Max reassured him.

"You're going home," said Leo sternly. "I knew you couldn't take this…"

"What? No… No way!" Max snapped. "I'm fine, I just… I need to sit down for a few minutes, is all…"

"Yeah, on the airplane," Leo added, leading Max out of the room. "I'm gonna call the kids… It's pretty late there, but knowing Charley, they'll still be up…"

"Heh, better her than me," Max muttered, and Leo hid his small shudder of self-disgust, and led Max to their room.

Paris:

The phone rang once, and Dako looked about from the edge of the book she had been reading. Avery was playing in the living room, and had no idea the phone was ringing. He failed to see the blinking lamp that signified the ringing, as he was setting up a series of action figures in preparance for battle. Jared was in the backyard, kicking about a soccer ball in an attempt to impress one of his other girlfriends. The phone rang once more, and Dako sighed, slid off of her seat in the dining room, and stared at the caller ID for one moment before answering, "Bonjour, c'est le residence de les Zenigatas et Lupins. C'est Dako Zenigata."

"Hey, Dako!" Leo said cheerily. "Do you think you could go get Charley?"

"Yeah… I'll try…" she answered, and ran up the stairs, looking about for her babysitter. She found Charley in her parents' room, going through Leo's closet. The babysitter had over her shoulders one of Detective Lupin's jackets, and also wore a stunned expression from Dako suddenly swinging open the door. The young girl raised an eyebrow to this, and passed the phone to Charley. "….This is for you…"

"Urm, thanks," an uneasy Charley said with a twitch of a smile.

"Anytime," Dako said unsuredly, and then exited out of the room quietly as she had entered.

"…Hey, what's up?" Charley asked quietly, sitting upon the bed. "Did he…?"

"No, but that's another story," Leo said with a sigh. "Max just got hurt really bad… Ally got angry with him and grabbed him by the shoulders, and… Yeah, Charley, he's in a ton of pain… I'm gonna have to send him home…"

"I'm not going home," said Max with a grunt. "We're a team!"

"And a good teammate knows when his buddy's down," Leo replied quickly, and turned his attention back to Charley. "Can you wait for him at the airport in the morning?"

"I'm not hurt!" said Max sternly, and he began to stand, gritting his teeth along the way.

"Max!" Leo yelped, and gave a frustrated sigh. "Charley, I… I'm going to have to let you go…"

"Yeah, I understand," said Charley quietly, and she cleared her throat and whispered. "I—"

"Gotta go!" Leo called, and then there was the sound of the dead end of the receiver, and Charley sighed, falling back onto the bed and closing her eyes.

"Why do I bother? I know I won't win…" she said to herself.

"I didn't know you were in a competition," Dako said from the doorway with folded arms.

Charley looked across and Dako, and rested upon her elbows. "Don't you have homework to do?"

"Heh, it's summer…" Dako muttered, and strolled down the hallway. She saw Jared running down the hall, and he stopped as she motioned for him to join her in her room.

"Is what's-her-face still here?" asked Dako tiredly, folding her arms and sitting back upon her bed.

"What, Lily? No, she… Hey, quit giving me that look! I haven't done anything, and you look just like Dad when you look at me like that!" snapped Jared as he seated himself at her desk. "What'd you need, anyway?"

"I think there's something going on with the brunette lady…"

"You know she's got a name, right? For crying out loud, Dako, she's as good as family!"

"That's what I'm worried about," Dako said, rising and pacing in her room anxious.

"What, you think she's having an affair with Dad?"

"Heck, no… I think he remembers her name as well as I do! I think it's Papa…"

"Pop? Jeeze, you're nuts…" Jared said with a sigh. "Like he'd ever go off and do anything like that. I'm come back when you start talking sane, all right?"

"Jared, she was wrapped in one of his jackets. When's that friendly behavior!"

"You ever think she might get cold, genius?"

"You ever think I could beat you to a pulp in front of all of your girlfriends, idiot?" Dako answered sternly, balling her fist. "Or at least tell them that you're dating like, four people at once?"

"…Fine, what do you want out of me, anyway, Dako?"

"Whatever dirt you can scrounge on her, Naruto," answered Dako with a confident smirk. "Grandpa's been teaching you how to snoop around, anyway…"

"I'm good at that because I'm a ninja!"

"Yeah, and I'm Haruko Haruhara," Dako said skeptically, pushing him out and then closing her bedroom door.

Jared's shoulders slumped as soon as the door of her room was closed, and he sighed, "Great… Now she _definitely_ hates you… Nice going, Jared…. What's your next trick gonna be?"

Ororo:

"So…. You trained with my mother?" Toshiro said as he sat in his bedroom across from Chiyose. She merely gave a nod, and the two continued to talk, unaware of the pair of angered eyes looking onward at them.

"Do you believe that!" Yukiko shouted after she and Ryo were a good distance from Toshiro's room.

"Yeah," Ryo admitted, and Yukiko stopped, stunned, and looked to Ryo with an insulted expression. "What? Yuki, he's a man scorned… And, well, she's a lot… Urm…."

"What? Younger?"

"Well… Yeah…. And they probably have a lot more in common than you two ever did."

"What? I only shared most of my life with him… How could you even say that!"

"What do you and him have in common?" asked Ryo. "Other than a child and a love for drinking."

"Damn it…." Yukiko sighed, placing a hand over her forehead in thought.

"Exactly," Ryo nodded, and stopped in the hall. "You're not jealous, are you? I mean, I could understand that you might be a little green because she's younger, but… You almost sound like you might kind of want him back."

"Nah-ah… No way in hell," Yukiko said sternly, shaking her head.

"Well, then what's the issue exactly, Yukiko?"

"She's all over him like a dog with a bone…."

"Are you so sure _she's _the dog?"

"And now what's that supposed to mean? Jeeze… You get one lousy degree and suddenly you're friggin' Buddha!"

"I like to think of myself as more of a Mulla Nasridin character…."

"I don't follow _Aladdin_…."

"He's not… Ugh! Nevermind! You're jealous and you're too much like dad to admit it!" Ryo sighed, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration.

"Yeah, says the woman who put a hit out on Max and blamed it on Max's ex-boyfriend's _wife_."

"You're sworn to secrecy about that, you hear me? I tried to get that hit cancelled!" snapped Ryo, pointing to Yukiko accusingly.

"Christ, it's your girlfriend…" Yukiko rolled her eyes as she watched Fuji bounce down the hall, whistling to herself.

"Well, you two look cheery!" said Fuji with a smile.

"Go put a sock in it," snapped Yukiko, turning away from Fuji and lighting a cigarette.

"Yup! Same happy Yukiko-san…. Thought you'd like to say bye to Saiyuri before Carmen took her with her to France!"

"Who said my kid was going to France?" Yukiko inquired in a snap.

"Said the responsible parent, probably," Ryo said beneath her breath, and Yukiko stomped off, toward Toshiro. She slammed open his bedroom door, and was about to speak when she took in the entire situation. Chiyose and he were sitting across from one another, laughing over something quietly amongst themselves. Just as Toshiro turned about in surprise, and Chiyose took this opportunity to grab hold of his hands. He shot his head briefly back at this gesture, and then bolted as Yukiko quickly fled the doorway.

"Jeeze… Now I've definitely screwed it up…" Toshiro muttered, allowing his shoulders to slump.

"What's she done to you?" asked Chiyose, looking him over with worry.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're from a long lineage of great samurai warriors, and you allow a woman to rule over you…" Chiyose explained, rising. Her stern features softened as she watched Toshiro's surprised expression, and she walked over to a nearby window. "I… I know… I have no business talking to you like that. It's your relationship, and I was just butting in…"

"Nah, everything you said was right," Toshiro muttered. "She walks all over me, and I let her… I put up with the friggin' borderline verbal abuse for years… You ever want something for years and years only to find out that, when you get it, it's not exactly what you wanted?"

"I think we've all had that happen," Chiyose said, tilting her head downward. "This may be a little forward, but I'd like you to come home with me after this, both you and your daughter."

"….I… Well, I…"

"Our clan needs its leader more than ever, and you're the one for the job," Chiyose said, gripping onto his hands once more. Toshiro looked downward at this gesture, and broke their grasp.

"I'm sorry…. New York's my home, now, not Japan. I barely fit into your culture, anymore," Toshiro said regretfully.

"That's very unfortunate… And sadly, it'll cost you," Chiyose said, and Toshiro confusion kept him from preparing for the blade of the knife Chiyose jabbed deeply into his chest. Toshiro grunted, his eyes widened, and he slowly slumped to the ground.

"Wh… Why did you…"

"It seems like the Ishikawas get weaker with each generation," muttered Chiyose, tossing aside her knife. "Like I'd really allow you to take my spot as the next potential Rat Clan leader… Please… You're pathetic…" she said with a sneer, and headed out of the room, smirking and chuckling to herself while Toshiro remained on the ground, "now to start phase two…."

Ororo had a train station running through it, and that was where, and while Toshiro lay in an ever-increasing pool of his own blood, Fuji and her gang, save for the samurai and Yukiko, stood in front of a large series of freight cars, Fuji looking over the scene and wondering how to approach the situation. Leo had taken Max and Carmen to the airport, much to Zenigata's protests, and they had left with all of the children, headed toward Paris. This only left the gang leader, Ryo, Heiji, Ally, Jordan, and Odori, who all looked over the wooden freight cars with concern at the size of the pearl-white creatures inside.

"All right… So what's the grand plan, Fuji?" asked Ryo, glancing to her watch and the looking to her friend.

"In all honesty? Have Dori-chan slice open the locks and then run like hell," Fuji admitted, scratching the back of her head meekly and chuckling at the stunned expressions from all around her.

"Great… I'm gonna go out getting trampled on by some kind of poor man's running of the bulls…" Ryo muttered.

Odori looked over to her shoulder at Jordan, and sighed as she unsheathed her sword, "I might as well humor the fool…."

"Now that's not very nice, Dori-chan!" said Fuji, putting a hand upon her hip and smiling. "Besides, we've got the matter of our visitors, before anything…"

"Visitors?" Odori inquired, blinking.

"Mm-hm… Looks like my plan's gotten a lit-tle more complicated…" Fuji said as she looked around at the gang of ninjas that surrounded her and her gang.

At the palace:

"Aw, what in the hell?" Yukiko felt her jacket pocket and sighed, shutting her eyes as she remember the exact whereabouts of her lighter. "I friggin' dropped it back there… Great, and they're probably just finishing up and he's using it to light her up one…" she grumbled, heading out of the gardens and up to Toshiro's room. She found the lighter right beside Toshiro's opened door, and bent down to pick up the silver Zippo with Japanese engraving upon it.

Yukiko frowned as she noted something staining the front of the lighter, and held it closer to her face to get a better look. She tilted her head to a side as she wiped away some of what she quickly identified as blood, and then heard a groan come from the bedroom. She placed the lighter in her jacket pocket and slowly crept in, Magnum drawn.

"Yuki…" Toshiro murmured as he looked up from the floor to his ex, "L… Lo…"

"Oh my God!" Yukiko gasped in horror. "What in the hell happened to you!"

"Look… Look out!" Toshiro coughed, clutching onto his wound tighter and attempting to reach for Yukiko. But it was too late. Chiyose, who had been hiding on the ceiling of the room, hopped down, and placed a thin string about a stunned Yukiko's neck, and began to pull back, trying with all of her might to choke the gunslinger.

"You're just as bad as any of the others," Chiyose hissed in Yukiko's ear. "And in a few more moments, there'll be one less of you to worry about…."


	4. Bang Bang

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lupin III, but somehow I've ended up with a fair amount of _Fairly Oddparents _MP3's… Okay, I admit it, I like the show. So sue me. No, no, don't, pleaseeeee. You wouldn't get anything out of it even if you tried.

It's been a long time, but now I'm, coming back home…

And finally off of a dialup connection! Eh, for the mostpart…. Still a lot of issues there, but hopefully I'll sort it out with time…. Hopefully. Anyway, finishing up my first story arc of this series hooray and it's been a blast, even if it's taken longer than most. Thanks for hanging in there with me, guys, and thanks for all of the reviews, as usual. Please leave your comments, it only helps me to become a better writer in the end and, hey, what can I say? I love hearing from people! And I'm lonely…. Oh so very lonely…. Weeeeee anyway, on with that show! Yay solitude: D

Fun Fact of Boredom: (sighs) Well, this had to come out sooner or later…. I got my start writing when I was twelve, writing Pokemon fanfics for my little brother. And, yes, they were extremely long, such as with my other stories. Oi, should've seen this coming a longgggg time ago!

Chapter Four: Bang Bang

Chiyose smiled as she pulled tighter upon Yukiko's neck while Toshiro attempted to stand, and Chiyose leaned back with Jigen still in her grasp, lifting Yukiko off of the ground.

It was then that there was the sound of a loud smack, and Chiyose collapsed onto the ground, and Yukiko went flying over Toshiro and onto the floor. She gripped her red neck as she shakily rose, and stared upward at Pius, who stood with a wooden staff in hand.

"I always knew these were for more than simply walking," said Pius, letting the staff rest at his side.

"Now you're gonna die," Yukiko snapped, drawing her gun and spinning around to face Chiyose. The ninja had risen, and now stood with a shiruken in hand, aimed at Yukiko.

"You do it, and I'll kill them all… My men are at the airport and at the train station as we speak, as well as surrounding the palace… You even try to harm me and I'll have any of them taken care of at a given moment…. I recall Lupin the Fourth owing me her head, anyway…."

"…." Yukiko looked downward to Toshiro, and then back to Chiyose. "He's bleeding really bad… At… At least let Pius take him out of here."

"Yukiko, what are you doing, you idiot?!" Toshiro grunted, sitting up and glancing at his ex-wife while still in immense pain.

"Relax, I'm doing it for Saiyuri," Yukiko said, not taking her eyes or her pistol off of the ninja. "If one parent's gonna make it out alive, it might as well be the responsible one."

"…Seeing as how he probably won't survive that injury anyway, you might as well," Chiyose muttered, and swiveled around to face Pius. "Get him out of here. This will be settled quickly enough…"

"She's a moron," Toshiro grunted to Pius as the ruler lifted him from the ground and led him out of the room. "Pius, you… Call Max… And Leo… Ngh…." He then slumped to the floor of the hall floor, leaving Pius to search for the samurai's phone.

"Why don't you just let me kill you, you old bat?" asked Chiyose as she circled Yukiko in the bedroom, her throwing star still drawn. "He's right about one thing, you know… You're an idiot."

"Only for certain things," Yukiko replied, remaining stoic as Chiyose's circle about her tightened more and more. "What do you say that you call off your guards, Chiyose? I can see them, you know…"

"Not as well as you used to though, right, Jigen?" Chiyose asked with a wicked smile.

This caused Yukiko's teeth to grind together, nearly chopping in half the cigarette in between her teeth, and she stiffened her stance, not even glancing as Pius drug the much-taller Toshiro out of the room.

"You are your father's daughter, after all…" Chiyose said with a chuckle. "You think I don't know about you, but I do… I know all about you. I had to do some background information on you, too, in order to know about Goemon the Fourteenth… You ran because you're getting old, Yukiko…"

"….Shut up…."

"And you're getting slower… You'd be nothing but a bother to him…"

"….Shut…. Up…."

"You're going blind, Yukiko," said Chiyose with a chuckle. "Just like your father… You're being punished after all of these years, at long last."

"SHUT UP AND DIE, BITCH!" Yukiko shrieked, and went to fire a shot. This missed Chiyose, who went running and propelled from the wall of the room, tossing a few of her shiruken at Jigen, who ducked and rolled across the floor. Yukiko's hat went flying in one direction, while she fired two more shots and quickly reloaded. Yukiko fired, and Chiyose threw another throwing star, and blood was shed, and one of the women gave a scream of pain.

The train station:

"Now what do you suggest, Fuji?" whispered Odori as she looked about at the circle of ninjas looking down at them menacingly.

"Urmm…. Having you come up with a plan to save us, Dori-chan?" asked Fuji with a wide smile. Lupin jumped as she heard a cell phone go off, and all, including the ninjas, looked to Ryo.

"….Better answer that…" Ryo said quietly, glancing to Fuji and then down to her hip. Fuji gave a nod, and while the ninjas concentrated upon the cell phone, the others took this opportunity to retaliate against the ninjas. Ally quickly got into a martial arts duel with several of the gang, while Jordan went through and shot while Odori quickly followed behind with her sword.

"Now I know why I stick to my own gang!" Jordan shouted as she smacked one of the ninja across the face with the hard metal casing of his gun. Even Heiji had taken to climbing atop the train cab and smacking away any ninja that got too close to him with his laptop carrying case. While this was going on, Ryo ran for cover and quickly answered the call from a crouched position behind a trash can on the platform.

"Ryo-sannnnnn!" Fuji shrieked as she went flying after she fended off a ninja attack with a folding chair that hand been beside her.

"Oh, God…" Ryo gasped, placing a hand upon her mouth as she heard the message over the other end of the phone. "….No…."

"Ryoko, are you going to lend a hand anytime soon?!" Jordan shouted, firing another shot and accidentally shot one of the locks keeping in the pent-up rhinos. There was the sound of distinct loud snorting and growling, and Jordan quickly lifted up Odori by the back of the gi and set her on top of one of the railway cars. "Crap! That's a Fuji-level screw up!"

"No, it's actually a Fuji-level act of genius," Fuji muttered, smiling and calling up to the gang on top of the railway cart. "You guys better hold on for your lives!"

"Fuji, Ryo's still down there!" Heiji called, and Fuji blinked several times, scanning the area and immediately spotting Jigen.

"Ryoko, what're you doing?!" Odori shouted.

"I'm goin' down," Ally grumbled, removing his jacket and slowly scaling down the car, Fuji close behind him.

"No, you've gotta stay," Jordan said firmly, gripping onto Fuji's wrist.

"She's my friend, and my responsibility," Fuji answered, deadly serious as she broke out of Jordan's grasp.

"Damn it, you've got a kid!" Jordan shrieked as Fuji took off running, jumping and falling onto the roof of the now-evacuated train station. The other passengers had been in enough of a panic over the ninjas, and the escaped rhinos had resulted in absolute chaos. Fuji rose and removed her choker necklace, wrapping the necklace itself about the palm of her hand and then extending it and hooking it to a pipe on the roof of the train station. Fuji took off flying, sailing down and lifting up Ryo about the waist. Fuji propelled off of the same car that the gang was on, accidentally hitting Ally in the face and knocking Jigen out cold. Just as Ally went to slip in the path of the rhinos, Heiji and Jordan took either of his hands and pulled him back up on top, while Fuji landed back on the roof with Ryo.

"Why'd you do that?!" Ryo shrieked, grasping out of Fuji's hold and pushing Lupin back. "Why couldn't you have left me alone!?"

"R-Ryo-san…." Fuji muttered.

"Quit it with 'Ryo-san'!" Ryo snapped, wiping away her tears and screaming. "It's just Ryo! I'm no one to look up to, so don't use that honorific!"

"Ryoko… What's going on?" Fuji asked quietly, ignoring the fleeing ninjas and the charging beasts beneath them.

"Stay out of my life, Fujiko," Ryo said sternly, backing away from Fuji and then drawing her gun, and taking shot. Fuji cringed at this, and then watched the ninja who had attempted to stab her collapsed to the ground. By the time Fuji had turned back around, Ryo had left and she was left standing there alone of the roof.

"Hey, forget about us?!" Heiji snapped. "What're we gonna do with all of these rhinos?!"

"Start shooting the locks off!" Fuji demanded as she switched back into leader mode, wondering what exactly had shaken her so badly. "They'll run back where they know it's safe…. How's Ally doing?"

"Friggin' knocked out cold," Heiji muttered, slapping Ally's cheek and sighing.

The palace:

Yukiko looked upward in wide-eyed surprise at the smoking gun of Max Zenigata, who stood smiling while leaning against Leo.

"Didn't I tell you I left my glasses here?" Max said with a smirk, grabbing his glasses from an end table beside the door and lifting them up for Leo to see. Leo only gave a moan and rolled his eyes while Chiyose laid shaking on the ground, holding onto her aching hand and looking upward to Zenigata with a glare.

"I'll kill you!" she shouted.

"I don't think so," Yukiko said with a smirk as she held up her own gun's muzzle to Chiyose's temple. "In fact, I think you should go with the inspectors…."

"Detectives," Max said sternly, pulling out a set of handcuffs and swinging them about in his face hand. "Mr. Lupin, you want to do the honors?"

"Love to, Mr. Lupin," Leo replied with a nod, walking over to Chiyose and slapping the handcuffs upon her wrists. She took a few steps toward Max with the guidance of Leo before she spun about and kicked him from beneath the jaw, and then ran to the open window as Leo collapsed to the ground in pain.

"Chiyose, get back here!" Yukiko growled, firing several more shots as the ninja merely laughed and jumped from the balcony.

Pius's eyes opened as he watched this feat, and he turned to Yukiko, "Miss, I would not worry. The moat about the palace is crawling with crocodiles…"

"She wouldn't be the first girl an Ishikawa loved to make friends with a few reptiles," Yukiko muttered, and turned back around as she placed her gun in her back belt loop and helped Leo to rise while Max looked onward in horror.

"He'll be all right," Yukiko sighed, dropping him into a heavy chair and grunting as she did so. "He's just knocked out, and his jaw's outta place. Carmen ain't still here, is she?"

"We got her on the plane," Max reassured her. "….Why?"

"Because I didn't want her to see this," Yukiko answered, placing a cigarette between her lips and seating herself upon Leo's lap. Toshiro's ire grew as he watched her tighten the grip about Leo's waist with her knees and Yukiko went to work, popping Leo Lupin's jaw back into place. Leo was just coming to when Yukiko finished, and one of his hands traveled upward as he felt a heavy weigh upon his lap. His hand fell on Yukiko's lower backside, and she gasped, immediately delivering a smack across his face.

Yukiko growled and adjusted her fedora as she jumped off of Leo, "And I hope I friggin' broke it, this time!"

Max and Toshiro watched as she stormed out, and Max asked Toshiro confidentially, "Has she, urm, tried women yet?"

"We all can't be as greedy as you, Max," Toshiro said with a smirk, followed by a groan as he felt another shot of pain ring through him.

"You want me to take a look at it? I know a thing or two about gunshots…"

"Yeah, but if you sit on my lap I'm gonna do a hell of a lot more than slap you across the face," Toshiro grumbled.

Later that night:

"Ow…" Ally muttered, and continued to rub his sore face as he laid out on the bed while Toshiro finished cleaning Yukiko's wound she had suffered in her fight with Chiyose.

"So she escaped?" Toshiro concluded and heaved a sigh.

"Yeah…. Couldn't exactly do much with a bum arm, now could I?" Yukiko replied, rolling down her shirt sleeve and sitting back against the bed her brother lay on. "Listen, I…. I tried, man…"

"It's all right, you're forgiven," Toshiro said with mild amusement. "I… You're all done," he added as he cleared his throat and looked away from her. Yukiko gave a small smile at this gesture and reached up with her good arm and ruffled his hair.

"Little idiot," she said quietly, and lifted herself up, and then hobbled out of the room.

"Well, at least you guys didn't start making out here," Ally muttered as Toshiro stood and looked over the hockey player.

"How's the face doing?"

"Eh, I think I know how Owen Wilson feels," Ally murmured, rubbing his sore nose and looking upward at Toshiro.

"Al, I…. When Yukiko was fighting Chiyose, Chiyose said something, and… I didn't think about it until now, when everything calmed down…"

"There's a crazed ninja on the lose, my sister's AWOL, and Fuji's got a kid whose father is more than likely crazy, too," Ally replied. "You call that calm?"

"In opposition to what just happened, urm, heck yeah," Toshiro replied. "Anyway, Chiyose mentioned something about…. Yukiko losing her vision…"

"What?" Ally blinked. "You mean, she might…?"

"Crap, I was really hoping you had some information…" Toshiro grumbled. "Listen, don't tell her I told you anything. I don't need her getting even more pissed off at me than she already is."

"Yeah, yeah, you got it…. Christ, what about Dad?"

"What about him?"

"Well, maybe… Maybe he'd know something," Ally shrugged and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "And I always thought I'd be the one to get that from him… Jeeze, I almost hoped it!"

"Why would you hope something like that?"

"Better me than any of my sisters," Ally answered. "But you wouldn't get that, would you?"

"Huh? The hell, of course I'd do anything for my siblings! Don't make me hate you again, Ally…"

"I didn't mean it like that… It's just, well… You didn't see them everyday like how I saw mine, man. They never tackled you and made you wear makeup!"

"And that's somethin' I really don't wanna know," Toshiro said with a few blinks.

"Yeah, I'm just saying, that…"

"I get it, I get it…. You stayed there and grew up with them, and I barely know any of my siblings," Toshiro said, pushing his bangs out of his eyes and sighing. "Maybe I should go talk to her…"

"She'd only try to kick your ass… Again…."

"Feel like spotting me?"

"Heh, with my nose like this? Forget it. I had a hard enough time landing a girl looking like I do now, and now with this friggin' nose I look like the ugly guy from the Gorillaz!"

"Didn't think you listened to that music, Ally…"

"I don't—They voted on Heiji's site and I guess that's what a majority of the poll said I looked like… Although when it's either him or Hong Kong Phooey, I could see that it was slightly fixed…."

"Yeah, ever so slightly… Well, rest up, man," Toshiro walked out of the bedroom, and nearly crashed into Yukiko, who was hurrying down the hallway opposite of him.

"What's with the suitcases? Running off again so soon?" asked Toshiro as Yukiko set down the suitcase at her side and took a puff of her cigarette.

"I got a gig," Yukiko answered sharply, lifting up her suitcase once again and resuming her walk down the hall.

"Really? Where?"

"It matter?"

"Don't forget your glasses," Toshiro said, and the prepared for the blow that was sure to follow.

Yukiko only stopped, and slowly turned about, and glared at him coldly, "Go find a ballerina to do, you Goddamn insensitive bastard…"

"Yuki, I want to help you. It doesn't matter what!"

"And there's something you can do for me…."

"What's that?"

"Get the hell out of my life!" Yukiko shouted, and stomped down the hall.

While Toshiro was still coming to terms with this blow, Fuji was downstairs, awaiting Pius to meet her in the garden. Instead, Heiji arrived, seating himself beside her uncomfortably and smiling, "Pius had a lot to clean up around here, and wanted me to let you know that he'll meet you for chess sometime else…"

"Yeah, figured he'd bail," said Fuji with a small smile. "What can I do you for… Erm, wait a second…"

"Don't worry, I get what you mean," Heiji said with a small chuckle. "I never really married Veronica…."

"That came a little from left field, but it's still good to know," said Fuji with a raised eyebrow.

"I…. Raising Hikari can't be easy for one person…. I see Toshiro raised Saiyuri practically on his own, and…"

"Heiji-chan, honestly, right now I'd just like a friend to help me with her, just a friend. I'm too tired for much anything else, honestly."

"And for now, that's all I'm offering," Heiji quickly replied, holding up his hands and smiling. "Jeeze, I'm working on a new form of Windows right now, the last thing I need is a relationship."

"But… You're willing to help with a baby…"

"Eh, I'm used to dealing with diapers… I helped with enough of my brothers and sisters," said Heiji with a smile, and he then watched as Fuji laid a hand over his, and he gave a chuckle. "What… What about Ryoko, Fuji? What're you—"

"Hope for the best," Fuji said with a shrug. "She's a big girl…. Plus I'll bet I know where she's going to…"

"Her Dad's?"

"Nah, not this time," Fuji said with a shake of the head.

Paris, France, the following day:

"I'll get it!" Jared shouted as he heard the doorbell sound off, and Charley was about to protest, but Dako quickly pushed Jared out of the way and continued her run to the door.

"I've got a package coming!" Dako shouted.

"Well, I've got a girlfriend showing up!" Jared countered.

"And what's so new about that?!" she snapped, and both stopped as they saw Avery at the door, his fingers gracing the doorknob as he stood on his tiptoes to open it.

'How'd you know it was….?' Jared asked, nearly too stunned to sign to his brother.

'Because you were both running to the door,' Avery answered with a smile. 'Felt you…'

'He could feel our footsteps,' Dako said with a roll of the eyes, and the doorbell then again rang, and Dako reached forward and opened it, expecting to see either her package or her parents. She found neither. Instead there stood Ryo, who was in a poor state. Her eyes were red and her makeup was gone, and she wore a loose black sweater and jeans instead of the usual well-kept outfit.

"Is Leo here?" she asked, wiping her eyes and then glancing upward as Charley walked into the living room. The reporter was taken aback at the sight of Ryo, and set aside the laundry basket, and ran to Jigen-Lupin.

"Could… Can I help you?" Charley asked worriedly, shoeing away the kids.

"Don't worry, it's just Pop's old flame," Dako explained.

"She's the one he _didn't_ get pregnant," Jared continued, and this resulted in a slap from both Dako and Avery.

"What do you think that cab was doing in our driveway?" Leo asked quietly as he and Max pulled up to their house in the backseat of their own taxicab.

"Maybe your parents…"

"Or yours…"

"…Don't even joke like that," Max said sternly, looking to Leo with a frown as the cab bounced down the dirt road and the cabbie continued to whistle along to the Middle Eastern pop music he had been playing since their pickup at the airport.

"Well, your mom is a fan of dropping in unexpectedly…." Leo said with a shudder of remembrance.

" Yeahhhh…. As if relations weren't strained with my dad enough," Max grumbled. "I just don't want anymore stress…"

The cab came to a stop in front of their house, and both men climbed out, Leo grabbing the baggage and waiting for Max to scale up the stairs of the house before entering in. And when he did, and found Max in the midst of a confused Charley and a distraught Ryo, and Leo Lupin went dropped the suitcases and went into an asthma attack as he realized half of the people he had ever been intimate with were sitting upon the same couch.

"What the…?" Leo began, and his eyes fell upon Charley, who only gave a shrug, while Max rose and ushered the three children into the den.

"Come on, I'll show you guys what I brought you from Africa…" Max said quietly.

"Oh! Did you bring a spider, or something?!" Jared asked excitedly, and Max only gave a groan at this.

"I'll go make some tea…" said Charley quietly.

"No, it's fine," Leo said, raising a hand to head. "We'll go outside onto the porch… Ryo and I both need a cigarette, anyway…" he helped Ryo to rise and walked out onto the back porch with Ryo at his side. He seated her across from him and sighed. "What's wrong…? Is it Jigen?"

"No… Victor," Ryo sniffed. "He… There… A deal went bad…. And… Some guy, he…"

"Is he dead?" asked Leo worriedly.

"No, but… He's in really bad shape…" Ryo said quietly.

"Where was he shot?"

"In the chest…."

"Jesus…" Leo said quietly, looking down to the ground.

"I didn't have anywhere else to go, and the hospital's so close to him… You were the only one I had to go to," Ryo explained.

Leo rose, and nodded, "Well, you're welcome here as long as you want…"

"What?"

"Hey, you helped me when I needed it most," Leo said with a gentle smile, rising and taking hold of her hand. "You can stay in the guest room next to Dako's… I'll call the hospital, and make sure Max's doctor gets a hold of Vic. She's the best in all of France dealing with these sorts of things."

"Thank you," Ryo stood and embraced him tightly. "It just feels like everything's falling apart, Ari…"

"I'm with you, there," Leo said quietly, tilting his head downward.

New York, that same day:

"Some bad stuff happened down there, Kiko…" Yukiko heard in a distinct New York accent as she sat in the gaudy office of who was now her new employer. She was in an oversized chair which made her look even smaller than she already was, and she gave a bored look toward Hatcher. "Just hope you don't make a mess out of this job…"

"That was all Lupin you were lookin' at down there, Hatch," Yukiko said plainly, glancing at her nails and then back upward to the older man in the smoking jacket and slacks who stood in front of the high-rise window. "I'm my own person, now, Hatcher…"

"Yeah, but don't forget where your loyalties lie, now," Hatcher said with a smirk, turning back to face her and glancing her over. "You'd look nice in a skirt, you know that? You've got nice legs…"

"You should know…"

"Yes, I should," Hatcher said with a chuckle. "Doesn't matter how old you are, you're still beautiful to me, Doll…"

"Don't make me puke," Yukiko said with a frown, glaring up from beneath her fedora. "I just got back from a nonstop flight from Africa to New York; I don't need your come-ons…"

"Nah… You don't, do you… You need to just concentrate on your job, Kiko," Hatcher said, patting her on the shoulder and bending down as he gripped onto both of her shoulders tightly. "Who would've thought there'd be a time when there was a Jigen who fell under the shoe of a simple "mob boss"? Hehehe…. Kinda funny, ain't it? Makes me wonder what your old man would do if he knew it…"

"Precisely what'd I'm gonna do to you if you don't get your friggin' hands offa me," said Yukiko darkly.

"That's not what you said before you went flying off to Spain," Hatcher said, removing his hands from her and stepping in front of her. Yukiko growled and rose, drawing her gun and spitting to Hatcher.

"I was drunk!" she snapped. "You act like we got married or somethin'!"

"But we did date," Hatcher reminded her, followed by a chuckle. "They always come back to me in the end…"

"This gun's about to be up _your_ end," said Yukiko warningly. "Now what's the gig, Hatch?"

"You take out a guy for me," Hatcher explained, tossing down a file on the desktop in front of Yukiko's eyes. "And I need it done fast… You oughta like this, Kiko…"

"Well, what the heck's his name?" Yukiko opened the file, and nearly dropped the cigarette from his mouth.

"Little bastard goes by 'Leo'… He's a notorious pillow-biter, from what I've heard, and he's gotta go," Hatcher explained. "You up for the job, or do I have to start wiping out all those pretty little people you call your "friends"? Because I'll probably start with that ex of yours..."

"Why can't you do it?" Yukiko asked, closing her eyes. "You're one of the best in the business… You taught me everything my dad and Jordan couldn't…"

"Because I'm getting old, and he's shown me that," Hatcher explained with a sigh. "The first time, my lackey ended up shooting his bitch, and then I got the wrong damn Lupin…"

Before Yukiko had the time to think this over, Hatcher continued, "So I want you to head to France as quickly as you can, Kiko, and take care of him… Shoot him, stab him… Whatever you want… Just get the job done."

"Why him, Hatcher? I… I know Leo… He's everything his Dad isn't… What would you want with him, Hatch? He's a pushover!"

"That's for me to know, and you to do what you do best," Hatcher said with a smile, taking her chin and lifting it. "You know, you'd make a great mob wife… You don't always have to be out there with the boys, Yukiko. You're beautiful, but you're getting older, you know…"

"I know," Yukiko stood and stepped away from Hatcher, and toward the exit of the study, "but dead is better than waking up to your face every morning."

Hatcher merely chuckled at this, and then watched as she skulked out of his office, "She'll come around, eventually… They always do… Whether they wanna, or not…"

Paris:

Ryo sat quietly in the darkened hospital room, and watched as another nurse passed the hallway, and then turned her attention back to Victor, who lay silent, his blue eyes closed and his shallow breathing steady. Ryo gripped onto his cool hand silently as she looked to the heart monitor, and bowed her head downward.

"Please don't go…" she said quietly, kissing his wrist and giving his hand, which wore a gold wedding band matching her own. "Listen, I… I can't deal with losing someone else… I already had one boyfriend die on me, so… Please don't go…"

"Mrs. Lupin… There're some visitors here for Mr. Lupin…" said the nurse, peeking her head in and giving a weak smile.

"A—All right," said Ryo with a nod, and she rose and quickly wiped her reddened eyes. Much to her surprise, Odori and Jordan walked in, Odori carrying a large bouquet of flowers and Jordan holding on to Namiko.

"We… Thought we might stop by…" Jordan explained, clearing his throat and turning about in surprise as the light was flipped on, and Fuji, too, stood in the doorway.

"What are you all even doing here? You all hated him!" Ryo snapped in anger. "He doesn't need your pity right now, you never showed any to him in the past!"

"We're here for you, Ryo-san," Fuji explained, stepping forward and expecting the worse, but only bracing Ryo as Jigen-Lupin collapsed in her arms. "I'm so sorry…"

"I don't know what I'm going to do it he's… If he doesn't make it…" Ryo wept.

"You won't have to, and he will!" Fuji said confidently, pulling Ryo back and looking over the shaking woman. "He's got the best doctors…."

"Thought I smelt Chanel…" they heard on contact, and Ryo turned about and faced the woman who looked relatively younger than herself, and with more American features. Her smile, though, was quite reminiscent, as were her eyes, which were nearly hidden over thick light-brown bangs.

"About time you got here," Fuji broke away from Ryo and turned her attention to the doctor. "What, disappointed that you're not seeing Max today, Em?"

"It's doctor while I'm on the job," she answered, pushing up her glasses and sighing. "I spent enough time in med school to just be 'Em' all of the time…"

"All right…" Fuji sighed and rolled her eyes. "Dr. Lupin, could you perhaps tell… Mrs. Lupin…. Heh… How her husband's doing?"

"He's critical, but stable…" Emily sighed, and stepped over to Victor. "It's bizarre how much he looks like Ari…"

"And then others of us are blessed and look like our mothers," Fuji said with a chuckle.

"Speak of which… His parents are here to see him," Emily continued, looking to the door and then watching as an aged Remy Lupin walked in, and beside him walked a redheaded woman with light eyes. Ryo, who had yet to meet Victor's parents, or hear anything about them from Victor, was shocked when she realized the woman who walked beside Remy Lupin was blind. Remy led her over to the bed, and she felt about, until she landed gently upon Victor's features.

Ryo watched in silent shock, along with Odori, Jordan, and Fuji, as the blind woman began to wail, gripping onto Victor's hand tightly and nearly collapsing upon her son's bed. Remy steadied her, and allowed her to lean against him.

"You must be Ryo… We haven't seen you since you were little," Remy said, looking her over. "I can see… What he sees in you…"

"May…. May I…?" Remy's wife stumbled forward, and placed a hand upon Ryo's face, and smiled. "You're right…. She's very pretty…."

"I always thought that Michi Mine was Victor's father," said Odori with apparent confusion in her voice as she looked upward at Jordan.

"Things went sour between Uncle Remy and Michi," Jordan explained, and Odori's eyes followed Jordan's across the room to Emily, who only briefly glanced at the duo and then went back to her chart.

"I'll leave you all alone to visit," said Emily quietly, heading out of the room while draping her stethoscope about her neck.

"I thought she looked more like Fuji than anyone…" murmured Odori. "Perhaps… We should head out, as well… It would be for the best to leave them."

"Yeah, Nami's getting a little tired, anyway," Jordan sighed and smoothed the little girl's hair down, and the couple made a quiet exit out to the hall, where Leo and Max sat out against the wall of the room upon a couch. Max busied himself with a magazine while, much to Jordan's surprise, Leo had brought out his knitting kit, and was making a small purple sweater.

"Please tell me that isn't for Avery," Jordan said in a moan at the sight of the plum purple color, "His name's "Avery", and he's already picked on for that and more… Do you really want him to be seen in something purple? Come on, bro, he's not you…."

"It's not for him," Leo said, looking above his glasses to Jordan. "It's the only color I had, and I'm making it from Namiko…"

"Urm… She… Oughta be all right," Jordan said unsuredly, passing Namiko off to Odori and taking a seat beside his brother and Max. "Who's it for, really? She wouldn't be able to fit into that…."

"Listen, I'm just trying… To make a sweater…" said Leo tensely. "Good God damn why's everything and interrogation with everyone?!" he huffed, stood, and strode down the hall in a rage.

"You've turned my brother into a girl," said Jordan with a sigh as he glanced over to Max and seated himself beside his brother-in-law.

"He did a good enough job of doing that on his own," Max murmured, flipping another page of his magazine and placidly looking over the fall floral arrangements. "…Who has the time to make this crap, anyway?"

"People like Leo," Jordan answered. "What's his deal, anyway?"

"Beats the hell out of me," Max answered, leaning back in his seat and sighing. "I thought we were doing good, then… Ryo showed up, and Charley was there, and started to go into a panic attack!"

"Heh… Better see what's up with him…" Jordan rose and followed Leo out onto the smoking section of the hospital, and found the purple-jacketed man amongst the old men and women lighting up amidst the cloudy weather around them. Leo had lit up as well, and was overlooking the French city surrounding them.

"Now I know you're not _that _broken up about Victor," Jordan said laughingly as he joined his half-brother on the railing. "When are you gonna get a haircut, hehe?"

"Don't know, when are you going to let me have a cigarette in peace?" Leo returned casually.

"Yeesh, that's more of a Peter attitude, wouldn't you agree? What's eating you?"

"Charley…"

"…."

Leo slapped his forehead and heaved a sigh, "And Ryo, and Max, and… A lot of different things… I've just got a feeling… A sick feeling…"

"Well, Namiko's got a cold, maybe—"

"—Like there's trouble ahead," Leo finished, and his shoulders slumped. "Sorry for snapping at you…Being crass really takes it out of me…"

"Eh, you're fine…" Jordan murmured with a shrug. "Now who's Charley?"

"Our secretary," Leo explained.

"Crap, you don't have a crush on him, do you?"

"Not exactly…"

"Well, your secret's safe with me… Guys who like guys are still guys, and we all look…"

"How reassuring," Leo muttered and gave a roll of the eyes, and he suddenly caught sight of a flashing, much like a mirror, from high above. Leo's eyes traveled to Jordan, and he muttered, being sure to barely move his mouth, "We're in trouble…"

"Victor wake up?"

"Worse!" Leo shouted, and took off running as several shots were fired toward him, and he slid underneath one of the metal patio tables, tossing it over and using it for cover. He quickly pulled down with him one of the patients who hadn't managed to run off in a panic, and Jordan took cover with his own table, and the Lupin brothers then began their retaliation, causing the gunman in the business building across from them to draw back and vanish.

"Okay… So maybe there's something to your blatant paranoia…" Jordan huffed, sitting back and tossing his empty magazine aside.

"It's not paranoia when you're the son of one of the most hated men in the world… So this is what Victor's world feels like," Leo muttered as he released the older woman, who looked down at Lupin and gave a warm smile.

"You better stay that cute…" the ancient woman muttered to a stunned Leo, and began to shuffle back into the hospital room. "Makes me wish I was fifty years younger…"

"…..She gave the term 'fag hag' a whole new level…" Jordan said with a shudder, rising and then helping up his brother. "You want to tell them there's even more trouble, or should I take the honors?"

"I say we both get coffee," Leo murmured.

"Hey, that lady looked rich, maybe you should consider being someone's boy toy…"

"I'd rather die being known as _Mankii-Chan_," Leo grumbled as they headed back in toward Victor's room.

"Damn it…" Yukiko muttered and sat back on her haunches, and lit another cigarette. "Can't friggin' believe this…"

She disassembled her long-range shooting rifle and placed it back in its case, and then rose and took a long drag of her cigarette, "I'd give my right arm for that bastard's luck, sometimes…"

She heard her cell phone, and answered it with a gruff, "What the hell do you want?!"

"….That's some 'hello'…" Toshiro answered on the other side of the line.

"What do you want?" Yukiko leaned against the wall of the hotel, and nodded as one of the aged cleaning women trudged past her.

"No smoking," muttered the cleaning woman in a thick island accent. Yukiko rolled her eyes and flicked the cigarette into the trash can on the side of the cart, and the cleaning woman continued down the hallway.

"I… Was wondering if you were in the area…." Toshiro said, clearing his throat.

"Yeah, I'm right down the friggin' block," Yukiko snorted sarcastically, while knowing in fact it was a mere seventeen hours ago she had been that close to Toshiro and Saiyuri. She rubbed her sore eyes and then gave a low growl. "Why do you ask?"

"I… I just wanted to know if you wanted to come visit us," Toshiro said quietly. "Yukiko, what you're doing is unfair. Listen, I'll love you, no matter what you do, just knock this midlife crisis crap off and come home already! Saiyuri keeps asking about you, and it's getting pretty damn hard to explain to a baby that her mom's too busy for her!"

"Do… Do you remember the thing you gave me, when we were still kids?"

"Yeah, my dagger," Toshiro said affirmingly. "Why?"

"It's in the mail," she replied, and shut off her phone, and then strode down the hall, glancing over her shoulder once and then pulling her gun in surprise as a familiar face turned the corner she was about to turn.

"Kiko, what in the world's going on?" Hatcher asked with a disappointed sigh. "You missed… You couldn't have had better opportunity had he been five yards from you, and you missed…"

"What in the hell are you doing here?!" Yukiko demanded angrily. "I do my job alone!"

"After that display, I'm not so sure," Hatcher murmured. "I wanted to see how you did on your own, if you'd lost your touch over the years…"

"And?"

"And you're disappointing me. And disappointing me, means disappointing your daughter… She's real pretty. Your ex was playing with her just now, when he called you for his daily begging for you to take him back… Can't blame him; you're damn good."

Yukiko was about to take a swing at Hatcher, but Hatcher grabbed onto her wrist, and bent it back, "Do it, and I'll paint the walls of that house with their blood."

He let go of his grip upon Yukiko and threw her back against the wall of the hotel, and walked off. Yukiko briefly drew her magnum, but lowered it as Hatcher turned the corner, and Jigen slowly slid to the ground, and her shoulders bobbed up and down as she wiped her dampening eyes.

"Always get what I want," Hatcher chuckled as he exited through the glass front doors of the building.


	5. Shoot to Thrill

DISCLAIMER: I don't own it, and I couldn't imagine trying to buy it. The DVDs cost enough, I couldn't imagine how much the series could cost!! Lol, probably more than I'll see in my lifetime.

Happy belated Halloween, everyone!

Most wonderful time of the year in my neck of the woods. Thanks again for all the readership and reviews, sorry if I'm appearing a little sluggish, but I've just been going through a mini crisis of faith, I suppose. I dunno, I guess all writers get it at one point or another, but I finally had one of my friends and readers write me a poignant e-mail which, paraphrased, basically told me to get off my ass, so, ya know what, I did! And it's great to be back… Thanks, you know who you are, lol.

PS: This is also dedicated to Sadie. I'll miss you a lot, li'l girl, hope you're doing well with Free and Max, and hope you know about this, somehow.

Fun Fact of Boredom: Some characters have their personalities or even some of their features based off of friends and family members. For instance, Ally Jigen had a lot of his personality based off of one of my brother's.

Chapter Five: Shoot to Thrill

"Any luck?" Jigen asked as he continued to sip his coffee and looked down who his granddaughter, who held up a haphazardly-colored in picture to him while she stood dressed in a blue gingham dress and red glittery shoes. "Who's this, sweetie?" he inquired as he glanced over the stick figure with the large nose and hat.

"You, Grandpa!" Saiyuri giggled, oblivious to her father, who set the phone in the receiver and heave a sigh.

"I think you got a future Picasso over here…" Jigen said, holding up his granddaughter's drawing for Toshiro to see.

"Nah, Picasso distorted figures, and this one's a dead-on likeness of you," Toshiro replied, taking the drawing and smiling. "She's still being thick-headed about everything…. I… I didn't even do anything to deserve this!"

"We rarely do," Jigen muttered, finishing off his coffee and setting aside his coffee mug. "She throws her tantrums, and then life goes on for all of us."

"Yeah, but why does Saiyuri have to be in this?!"

"'Cause life ain't fair, kid…"

"Kid?! I'm thirty-six!"

"And act like a forty-year-old woman…" Jigen muttered. "Hey, where'd this come from? Is this Saiyuri's doll?"

"No, it's Daddy's way of helping pay the bills," Toshiro answered, taking the puppet and sighing. "I play a gay puppet…."

"….Does your Dad know about this….?"

"Eh, he tends not to ask what I do for a living, anymore, as long as I do and I'm not hurting anyone who didn't have it coming anyway," Toshiro shrugged, taking the puppet, placing it upon his hand and sighing. "Heh, sticking it to a gay guy… Nothing Lupin's son never did."

"Nothing we never thought you'd end up doing…"

"Excuse me?"

"C'mon, kid… You liked Broadway, wore a skirt, had long hair, had a best friend who was a girl, and played with dolls…"

"She made me play with those damn dolls," Toshiro corrected Jigen. "I'm sick of playing adult while she runs around, getting herself nearly killed!"

"Sick of playing mom and dad? Yeah, I was, too… That's why I got married," Jigen murmured quietly.

"Huh? Well, that and you loved Ming…"

"You know any Greek?" Jigen took Saiyuri in his arms and watched as she brushed the hair of one of her numerous blonde dolls.

"Erm…. Maybe a menu at the Anapolis… But that's about it…." Toshiro looked off sideways, wondering exactly where this conversation was going.

"There're six types of love, they say… One's pragma…. Love of convenience…"

"You mean, you…"

"Hell, I was happy enough to find someone to put up with me! I was a half-blind chain smoking jerk with a six-year-old… I grew to love her based on that alone," Jigen explained. "And now that I've made myself look like a bastard, maybe… But sometimes love can come afterward. Maybe you should look into something like that."

"I'm not going to go find someone just to play mom for my daughter! I don't like using people," Toshiro said to an ever-calm Jigen. "She's got a mom, and that's what's got me so pissed! How bad is it to want her to be in her daughter's life?!"

"You sound like a broad."

"Well you're friggin' ancient."

"Heh! Tell me something I don't know," Jigen returned in his gruff tone.

"….I miss her so much…"

"I know," Jigen sighed, reaching forward and rubbing his ex-son-in-law's shoulder. "She'll come around, trust me…. We Jigens are just stubborn, but we get back in line after someone whaps us on the head a few times…"

Paris:

"Maybe we should forego going home for a little while, for the kids' safety," Max said as he sat across from Leo in the dimly lit hospital waiting room. Zenigata-Lupin had his hands clasped and his brace at his side.

"They might try to go after the kids, too," Leo muttered. "God, maybe waiting to have another baby was a good idea, after all…"

"It wasn't so much a decision to put it off as it is nothing's working to get you knocked up," Max said with a chuckle. "Besides, who wants my freakin' genes to carry on, anyway?"

"I do," Leo said with a chuckle. "I'm sick of doing all the work and making all the kids…"

"Fine, lemme go find a hooker and see if she'd mind carrying my bloodline," Max said with amusement.

"Mm, you could probably do that, you're cute," Leo leaned back in his seat and sighed. "What in the hell are we gonna do, Max?"

"It's more of a question of what you've done…"

"When I left my father, I paid back almost everyone I'd ever stolen from," Leo explained.

"Almost everyone? Who's almost?" Max asked, tilting his head.

"Well, I—"

"How's he doing?" Max looked upward to Fuji, who had entered the waiting room and stood there silently while the two spoke.

"Same," Fuji took a seat beside Leo and patted his hand. "So what's this about you guys and another kid, eh? Max, I didn't even think you wanted one to start with!"

"Well, I didn't plan on a lot of things, Fuji," Max answered bluntly, grabbing his crutch and lifting himself up, then hobbling out of the room. "I'm gonna go make a phone call."

"That's crap if I ever heard it. Everyone Max talks to is in the hospital," Fuji murmured. "Someone's after your head, Ari…"

"No, really? The bullets kinda hinted at that," Leo replied with a tired smile. "I have a feeling that Victor's in that bed by accident… God, all the crap he's done, and he's in there for looking too much like me."

"We don't know that," Fuji was quick to interject. "…But it's pretty damn likely."

"So, what's the plan, Lupin?"

"Wish I knew," she sighed and shrugged. "I wish Yuki was here to play bodyguard, but she's AWOL… I could always get Jordan to."

"No, I don't want anyone's life to be at risk for mine," Leo said with a firm shake of the head. "Max tried it, and—"

"What? What's wrong?"

"When he went to the hospital, it was Emily who looked at him then, too. She said that… That the bullet entered him a weird way…. Do you think it's my fault he's—"

"Hey, don't go thinking that… You wouldn't go hurting him like that."

"No, no I'd find other ways," Leo muttered. "I've been Goddamn selfish and I guess that it's starting to bite me in the ass."

"Why can't you be selfish in small ways? Like taking the last cookie from the jar, or something? You always go for these major things, like running away, or…. What're you gonna do with her?"

"Call it off," Leo rose confidently and grabbed his jacket. "Could you give Ryo a ride back to the house?"

"Eh, why the hell not? You going to be okay going on your own?"

"The worst that'll happen is I'll get shot, and at this point I'm kind of welcoming it," Leo answered, exiting the room and hailing a cab down at the curb. He heard a shouting behind him as the cab took off, and he nearly drew his gun, but saw, much to his surprise, that it was Yukiko Jigen, running down the street with her hat in her hand, waving it at the cab. Leo motioned for the driver to halt, and he opened the door for Yukiko, allowing her to slide in beside him.

"What… What in the hell are you dong here? No one even knows where you are!"

"I… I just wanted to make sure that everyone was doing all right, but I didn't wanna be seen," Yukiko answered in a pant, removing a flask from her jacket and taking a swig of it.

"You… You know how worried everyone is, don't you?" Leo continued disbelievingly.

"Hey, buddy, if you're gonna get up on your soapbox save it. As I recall you ran away from my sister, so you're no one to be telling me anything."

"I didn't have a child with her, and I wasn't in my thirties," Leo returned quickly, taking the flask from her and taking a sip for himself, and handing it to her.

"Heh, leaving is leaving, and someone always gets hurt," Yukiko answered, slipping the flask in her jacket and placing her fedora upon her head.

"Something we have in common, huh? We seem to love hurting people," Leo muttered, pushing up his glasses and glancing out the window at the bright red, orange, and yellowed trees that cluttered the parks and streets the taxi sailed down at a steady pace.

"What?" Yukiko blinked several times as she took this in, and she shook her head, giving a throaty and amused chuckle. "I guess we do… But you've got people who love you, people you want to protect…"

"Hrm? Well, yeah, that comes with the being a dad territory," murmured Leo. "What, are you proposing something?"

"I'm thinking you need a bodyguard… Not that you don't do a good job yourself," Yukiko replied, holding up her hands in defense. "I just think, the more the better. Like insurance…"

"….How'd you know Fuji and I were talking about that?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I heard about you getting shot at," Yukiko answered after taking a pause to think of a good excuse as to how she knew this information.

"Yeah, some amateur…." Leo said with a sigh as the car pulled up to his home. "But I don't need a bodyguard, it was just something Fuji was suggesting to me…"

"You need someone to watch out for you, so you can be there for your kids…Is that a pumpkin?" Yukiko asked as she looked at the porch and saw a lighted gourd smiling back at her.

"Ugh, yeah," Leo placed his hands over his face and moaned. "I have to celebrate, now… Considering most of my family's American."

"….I was supposed to take Saiyuri out this year…" Yukiko said quietly, looking offward onto the floor of the cab.

"Yukiko…. Come inside, and get something to drink, and keep me safe until Max comes home," Leo held out his hand to her after exiting the cab and smiled. "Sorry to say there's nothing beyond cider…" he added as Yukiko took his hand and followed him out of the cab.

"What in the….? What kind of kids are you raising here?" Yukiko wondered as she watched a mannequin swing back and forth from its feet while tied to a rope on one of the trees in front of the home. "Why do you guys even have that in your house?"

"It's… Max's…" Leo answered, followed by an uneasy cough.

"I—" Yukiko could not finish her sentence, however. Three children came barreling out, the only girl dressed in a purple witch's hat and dress, the oldest boy wearing devil horns and a red tracksuit, and the smallest boy in a gray long-sleeved shirt and matching pants with a pattern of a skeleton upon it.

"How very Disney of you all," Yukiko said with a smirk as she looked over the three children who had toppled Leo over onto a pile of dead leaves.

"Hey, what's she doing here, now?" Jared asked as he climbed off Leo with Avery squirming in his hands.

"She's… Going to be staying with us for a little while, too," Leo said, rubbing the back of his head and then dusting off some of the leaves.

"Her and Aunt Ryo both, huh?" Dako adjusted her hat and looked over Yukiko suspiciously. "Didn't you date my dad, once?"

"Urm, I…"

"Hey, Grandpa and Grandma got us some candy! It came in the mail today!" Jared said happily, taking Leo by the hand and dragging him in while Avery pushed him from behind.

"…Cute kids…" Yukiko said to herself as she watched a composed as ever Dako following in behind the three of them. Yukiko reached in her jacket and placed her hand upon her gun handle, and sighed, releasing the handle and shaking her head.

"Yukiko, you coming?" Dako asked from the door.

"Sure…. And if there's banana Laffy Taffy I've got dibs on it," Yukiko said with a small smile upon her face.

"Ew, you can have it," Dako said with a grimace.

"Heh, awesome… That's better pay than I'm making now," Yukiko said with a chuckle as she walked into the house and found it fully decorated. She looked over to the three small children and wondered exactly why Leo was a deadman in the eyes of her boss.

New York:

"C'mon, Saiyuri!" a young Asian girl dressed as a devil took the young girl in the Dorothy costume's hand, while an identical Asian girl in an angel costume followed them closely behind.

"I'll take them up the streets," Ming said with an amused smirk while watching the three girls out of the corner of her eye. "Don't wait up for us…"

"You got it," Jigen nodded, and stayed in the living room of the house until they had left, and then went off up the stairwell to find Toshiro. He found the samurai in the main bedroom of the house, his forehead upon his knees as he sat with his arms hugging his legs defensively. "I'd ask if you were all right but from that position I think I already know my answer." Jigen sighed, seating himself at the foot of the bed and removing his hat, revealing a full head of gray hair, "Are you going to be all right, is the better question to ask….'

"I'll live," Toshiro muttered, wiping his face and looking upward at Jigen. "How can she… How could she? I mean, it's not like how it was with you, where you didn't know that she existed! She knows she's got a child out there, so, why… Why isn't she here with us? If I had the chance, I'd want all of my kids with me…"

"And she doesn't know what that's like," Jigen sighed. "I can't say I do, either, but I know someone who was just like that… Sometimes all he wanted was to have all of his kids together…"

"Lupin, right?"

"Nope," answered Jigen, looking Toshiro squarely in the eye. The samurai jerked back in surprise, and before he could venture to answer, Jigen patted him on the shoulder and smiled. "C'mon, you little girl's downstairs with her aunts and grandma… Why don't you go save her?"

"Mm… Just appreciate what I've got, right?"

"Bingo," Jigen nodded and watched as Toshiro rose, straightened his kimono and walked out of the bedroom, his swords on his back as usual. "Heh, guess that even he put a mask on for the holidays…"

Paris:

"You ever have the brakes cut out on your car and you start barreling downhill?" Emily asked as she searched through her file while Max remained seated across from her in the waiting room. The doctor was currently on break, but she still spent this time scanning through her files, searching for any missed information.

"Yeah, your sister's done it. Four times," Max answered, lighting a cigarette and leaning back in his seaet.

"…Max, you can't—"

"You want one?" Max inquired, holding out the pack to her.

"No, and you don't, either," Emily walked over to him and removed the cigarette from his mouth, taking a long drag, and then tossing it into a nearby potted plant. "I need to check your back later, Max, see if those rods are still straight in there. You… You haven't frozen it up lately, have you?"

"Are you kidding? My cat's getting laid more than I am…"

"You guys don't have a cat," said Emily with a raised eyebrow.

"If I did, it still would be getting more than me," Max grumbled, adjusting himself in his seat and flicking aside his now extinguished cigarette. "Heck, maybe even you—"

Emily held up a finger signaling for Max to stop, and to this he merely gave a roll of the eyes and stood, "What would you say to lunch, Doctor Lu—"

"It's Wolfe, here," Emily said sternly, closing her file and taking his arm in hers. "If they knew who I was, well, I'd be in a lot of trouble…"

"Yeah, I'm familiar with that," Max said with a chuckle. "Remember who I live with, the king of deception."

"Don't you kind of worry about that sometimes?" Emily asked as they headed down the hallway.

"What? Nah, no way he'd be able to get anything over me…" Max said with a smile. "If it's one thing I did inherit from my dad, it's the Zenigata sense…"

"And the love for chasing Lupin tale," Emily added with a chuckle.

"Heh, what can I say—We love pain…"

A Parisian Hotel, later that night:

"Ngh…" Yukiko sat up and placed a hand to her forehead, then felt around the dark room for her fedora, which she placed on her head haphazardly, and she then sat back against the headboard and lit a cigarette. "I'm starting to think these promises you made me ain't worth this…"

"You're telling me you'd rather be blind?" Hatcher said with a smile, turning about to face her as he finished adjusting his tie.

"It'd make doin' you a hell of a lot easier," Yukiko grumbled. "Where'd you put my shirt, huh?"

"Right next to your payment on the dresser," Hatcher answered with a small smile. "How's that schmuck doing?"

"Thinks I went to a bar," Yukiko answered, pulling on her shirt as she stood at the dresser and then shoving the money in her pocket. "Hatch, are you sure you want him dead? I mean, I could just rough him up a little… You better than anyone should know I can throw a good punch…"

"You're good at a lot of things, Kiko," Hatcher answered with a smile. "I just paid you to be a whore, now I'm paying you to be a killer. So I seriously suggest you earn your bread and deliver me that bastard's head on a platter."

"What'd he do to you, anyway?"

"Stole something really important to me," Hatcher explained quietly. "Now get the hell outta here, Kiko… I've got another appointment… And you know, you should really try wearing dresses more… You're really pretty beneath that hat…"

Yukiko said nothing, but only finished dressing, loaded her gun, and headed out, her pace increasing as she headed down the hall, and she then stood restless at the elevator, and slammed on the buttons. She hit the button several times before pounding on the stainless steel doors in frustration. They then opened, and Yukiko slipped in quietly, finding herself to be the only one in the elevator as the doors closed. She looked out the glass window of the elevator as it went down to the premiere etage, and she rubbed her eyes several times, finding it harder and harder to see as her eyes watered.

"I want my mom and dad," she choked, and slipped down onto the ground in tears. "I just wanna go home…"

The Lupin-Zenigata house:

Leo sighed as he peered in and found Ryo asleep in the guest bedroom, fast asleep, much to his relief. Max had yet to return from his meal with Emily, but this failed to concern Leo very much. The three children had gorged themselves on candy all through the night, and they laid out on the couches of the living room, their masks and numerous candy wrappers peppering the floor. This left Leo alone with his sanity for at least a few moments of his sanity.

He had counted his blessings too soon, however. There was a knock on the door, and he gave a groan of frustration, "Let's see… Thirty-percent chance it's Max… Five-percent chance he's sober…. Twenty-percent chance it's Charley… Twenty-five percent chance it's either of our parents'… Twenty-percent chance it's Fuji…" he muttered as he headed to the door. He opened it and found not only Fuji there, but Jordan, Heiji, and Ally as well.

"Wow, I didn't know there was a party outside," sighed Leo tiredly. "Am I invited?"

"Yeah, actually," Fuji said with a smile, pulling on a set of black gloves which matched her black turtleneck, boots and pants. Leo's concern grew as he saw the other men dressed the exact same way.

"Please tell me you guys are going as the Beatles for Halloween, please?!" Leo moaned, clutching his forehead.

"Heh, you're the detective, you figure it out," Ally said with a small smile, lifting up his backpack and chuckling.

"Whatever it is, I don't want any part of it," Leo snapped, and was about to shut the door when Fuji instinctively stuck in her boat and smiled sweetly at her brother.

"But you haven't even heard our proposition, yet!" Fuji said, embracing Leo and smiling even wider.

"It's probably something illegal, and that's the last thing I need right now, guys… I've already got someone of my ass as is."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about your marital problems later," Fuji sighed. "What we're going after is some info on the guy who shot Victor!"

"That's uncharacteristically kind of you…"

"She's in it for a treasure, too," Jordan said plainly, looking over a sheet of paper and shoving it in his pocket. "We can have Odori watch the kids…."

"How'd she even agree to that?"

"I gave her about a year's supply of miso, a barrel full of pickled radishes, and five Johnny Depp movies," Fuji said with a light shrug. "Her wants are really pretty basic."

"How are you sure you found the person that did it to Victor?" Leo was now standing outside of his porch, and quietly closed the bright red front door behind him in order to allow Ryo her sleep.

"We traced back the bullets he was shot with to a certain gun," Heiji explained, briefly showing off his laptop to Leo and then going back to typing information into the machine.

"And I used some sources to track him down…" Jordan added.

"And I beat the punk's face in until her complied," Ally said with a slightly sadistic smile.

"…You're all unbelievable…" Leo said, hanging his head as it began to ache.

"I know!" Fuji chuckled. "Isn't it great!? Now, what do you say we get going?!"

"Wait… Wait… I don't even know this guy's name!"

"It's Hatcher," Heiji replied, "You know him?"

"Yeah…. Hatcher and I go back a little…" Leo murmured. "He's one of the few people who I stole from that couldn't pay back…"

"What'd you steal from him?" Ally inquired.

"A mermaid," Leo said with a small embarrassed smile.

"Whaaa?" the four blinked, all looking to Leo with a mixture of stunned silence and confusion.

New York:

"You have a good time with Mako and Yoko tonight, sweetie?" Toshiro asked as he carried his daughter to bed. Saiyuri was now in her pajamas, but clutched onto her bag of candy defensively, refusing to let up her deathgrip on the sack.

"Yeah…. But I want mommy…" Saiyuri murmured with a yawn as Toshiro laid her down to sleep.

"Yeah, me too, honey…" Toshiro sighed, switching off her light and heading out of her bedroom after kissing her upon the forehead.

Jigen and Ming looked up from their television program as they saw Toshiro begin to rummage through his closet, and Jigen rose as Toshiro pulled out a suitcase and began to toss his necessary belongings in it.

"What in the hell's going on, now?" Jigen asked in an almost expectant tone.

"I'm going to drag your daughter's ass back home even if I have to kill her to do it," Toshiro replied as he tossed one of his kimonos over his shoulder and toward his suitcase. Jigen caught the kimono and refolded it, and then set it in the case neatly. "I'm going to need you to look after Saiyuri for a few days, Jigen…"

"That ain't a problem, and you know it…" Jigen answered as he seated himself upon the bed beside Toshiro's suitcase. "I was wondering when you were finally gonna act like the man and go chase her down."

"There'll be no chasing," Toshiro muttered to himself. "She's take horrible care of herself, she can't possibly run too fast…"

"Are you taking up cocaine again, because you're talking to yourself…." Jigen said to Toshiro worriedly.

"Ming, I need you to do something for me!" Toshiro called as he hurried out to the living room once more.

"What's up?" Ming asked, rising from her seat and placing her hands on her hips.

"Eh, I need a dye job," Toshiro pointed to his gray head of hair, and Ming merely nodded.

"Cherry red?"

"More of a 'pissed off and not going to take it anymore' red, if you can…"

"One Nicole Kidman special, coming right up," Ming muttered, cracking her knuckles and venturing into the bathroom.

"If that's him off of drugs, I'd hate to have seen him _on _them," Jigen muttered to himself as he watched this unfold from the bedroom.

Paris:

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Leo said with a shake of the head as he stood at the foot of the tall hotel building beside Fuji, Ally, and Jordan. Heiji sat in the car, manning the police scanners and the headsets. Jordan carried a long length of rope, while Ally held a black bag, whose contents Leo was not sure of. "I've worked my ass off to clean my image, and this could screw up everything I've worked for…"

"Hey, you got into this mess," Fuji muttered, and looked over her shoulder. "Well, you boys ready?"

"As ready as we can be," answered Ally quickly, smiling and pulling out a spherical object from the black bag.

"Don't tell me those are… How did you guys get those?!" yelped Leo as he looked over the explosive in Ally's hand.

"You know, you probably wouldn't be going gray if you didn't worry so much…" Fuji said as she passed him.

"Gray?!" Leo yelped, placing a hand on the back of his head. "Do… Is there really gray?"

"Looks gray from up here," Jordan murmured as he passed his brother and headed to the back of the hotel.

"…Yeesh… Would you stop being such a girl and come on?!" Ally snapped.

"Coming… Although I can't believe I am…." Leo muttered, trailing behind the small group.

The Paris Roads:

"Definitely one of the better dinners I've had," Max said with a satisfied smile as Emily drove her car down the chilly dark streets.

"Your French is getting better, but I can't say so much about your table manners," Emily chuckled. "I swear I saw you down the spoon along with that soup…"

"Aren't you adorable?" Max muttered, looking over to his left at the Lupin daughter and leaning back in his seat. "No family, no work, and no friggin' Fuji Lupin to worry about…"

"….What's that on your jacket?" Emily blinked and looked from the corner of her eye to Max, and the piece of paper which was pinned beneath Max's jacket collar.

"Ha ha… Very funny…"

"No, seriously," Emily reached over and pulled off the sheet of paper. "What is it, like a number for an on-the-side boyfriend?"

"I wish!" Max growled as he read it over and crumpled the note in his hand. "Friggin' Fuji! I knew it was too soon to count her out of the game! We've do you know your way around South Paris?"

"Well enough…. Oh, God, Max, you're not going to—"

"No, you're going to," Max replied. "I need you to get me to Fuji…"

"Max, Leo and Jordan and Fuji and virtually everyone who gives half a damn about you already told me not to humor you when you start to act crazy, much like you're doing now…"

"I'm not acting crazy…" Max said with composure, and a moment later reached over and placed his foot upon the gas.

"Oh my God, what in the hell are you doing?!" Emily shrieked in horror.

"I was raised as an only child… We're not good at not getting our way…" Max answered calmly, now flooring the gas and smiling as police sirens began to blare and lights began to flash in the rearview.

"Get away!" Emily snapped, and pushed him off, causing him to slam against the passenger door of the car. "Oh my God, oh my Goddddd…. Now what?!"

"Drive where I tell you to…"

"I became a doctor to get away from this crap!" Emily moaned.

"Yeah, going straight hasn't worked out for either of us, has it? Turn right!" Max shouted suddenly.

"All right, all right, just stop grabbing the wheel!" snapped Emily, pushing him back once again.

"Fine, just get there, quick… My 'Leo's being talked into something' sense is tingling all of a sudden…"

The hotel:

"I can't believe you talked me into this…" muttered Leo, shaking his head as he continued to scale up the hotel windows with Fuji by his side.

"Just… Think of the kids…"

"I'm thinking of Max, and how he's going to kick my ass…"

"…So, you talk to Charley yet?" Fuji inquired as she continued to scale up the building via an unoccupied window washer's lift.

"I can't get a hold of her…"

"Liar," Fuji said with a smirk. "You want me to do the talking? I do a good version of you…"

"No, it has to be be me… You can sound like me, but you don't act like me in the least," Leo said with a shake of the head. "Fuji, tell me the intelligence in stalking a guy who's trying to kill me?"

"Well, it's like when a train explodes….. You run toward the fire…"

"No, you run from it… It's… It's common sense, Fuji…"

"You run toward it," Fuji said with a heavy sigh as they reached Hatcher's floor.

"You don—"

"Heiji-chan, are you getting any of this?" Fuji inquired as she spoke into her microphone.

"Unfortunately… And you run toward the wreckage, so it doesn't hit you," Heiji said plainly. "Can't you guys do one thing without it turning into an argument?"

"No!" both answered in a whisper.

"Toward the fire… That doesn't even make sense," Leo murmured, shaking his head and grumbling, then removing his gun and looking to Fuji. "When do we run in?"

"We don't run… We jump right on it," Fuji said with a confident smile. Leo frowned at this statement, but before he could think is over any further, Fuji went flying in through the window, Leo along with her. She was quick to cover both their faces with masks she had in her bag, and Leo quickly rolled her off and stood. The room was darkened, but there was enough light to make out a tall figure standing amidst them. He was about Hatcher's height, and based on this, Fuji came from behind and clubbed him on the back of the head.

"What the… Grade A spy work, Fuji," Leo hissed. "Dad would be so proud of you…"

"Okay, so I'm not Roger Moore…"

"You're not even George Lazenby, at this point," Leo muttered as both began to lift Hatcher up by the arms. "Uh-oh…."

"What? What uh-oh?"

"How long do you think Hatcher keeps his hair, now?"

"Pretty short…"

"This guy's got long hair, Fuji," Leo said worried, and their worst suspicions were confirmed by a yell of surprise from Ally, who had ventured off into the bedroom to drop more smoke bombs. He dropped the unused smoke bomb, and looked through his night-vision goggles aghast.

"What in the hell did you guys do?!" shouted Ally, tossing aside his goggles

"We thought he was Hatcher!" snapped Fuji.

"Hatcher flew the coop!" Ally yelled, looking to the knocked-out blonde on the floor.

"He's gonna kill us, yup," Fuji nodded, and just as they went to drag out Jordan by the arms, a composed Heiji's voice came over the headsets.

"Guys, there's a slight issue…" Heiji said with a sigh, looking upward and waving to the passing police cars, who completely ignored Ishikawa and zoomed toward the hotel.

"Out of the car!" one of the policemen ordered Emily and Max. Emily jumped and then looked to Max wrathfully.

"If I go to jail and get a record, I…"

"Relax… I'll get out and talk to them," Max said with a smile, slowly exiting the car and waving to the men. "Relax, Zenigata-Lupin, detective… I have my badge right…" then Max stopped as he reached toward his neck, where his badge usually hung, and felt his blood run cold. And he remembered exactly where he had left it, too; on the kitchen counter, next to his checkbook. "Crap, crap, crap…."

"What's wrong?" Emily whispered as she, too, exited the vehicle.

"…My badge is on the kitchen counter…"

"Oh my God I'm gonna die unmarried," Emily groaned, and both held up their hands, Max only able to hold up one in his condition.

"Listen, now, I can explain…" Max began slowly, taking a step forward.

"Stand the hell back!" growled the police officer, and Max looked to Emily worriedly.

"Hey, Mr. Policeman, you looking for us?!" Fuji shouted from upstairs.

"It's Lupin the Fourth!" shouted one of the other policemen as all stood in disbelief, their guns slightly lowered.

"See!" Max shouted. "This is what I was trying to show you!"

"Sir, I did not give you permission to put your hand down, and I sure as hell did not give you permission to talk!" the officer shouted, and pointed his gun upward toward Fuji and Ally.

"Okay, now," Fuji ducked her head back in and clasped her hands together. "Ari, you take you badge and gun and walk downstairs, make yourself look a little roughed up, like you... Like you got into a fight with us!"

"And I just happened to wear a black turtleneck and pants and have a kit on me that's perfect for breaking into nearly anywhere!" Leo snapped.

"Whatever works," Fuji shrugged. "Ally, you're gonna fly out with Jordan… I'll follow behind… I've got a little bit of work to do."

"Right," Ally nodded, and opened the backpack he had carried, revealing a set of pipes and tent-like material. "I'll fly out the other side…"

"How in the heck are they not supposed to see that, Fuji?" Leo demanded as he looked over the bright red hang glider.

There was a spark in Fuji's eye, and she smiled, "Big time power grid failure…"

"You're crazy," Leo said plainly, turning about and shaking his head. "This whole family's psychotic…"

"Oh! One more thing," Fuji said, tapping Leo on the arm.

"Eh?" Leo turned back around, and collapsed to the ground as Ally hit him roughly on the back of the neck.

"It'd look better if it were more realistic," Fuji added, looking down at the ground to her brother. She then glanced upward at Ally, and smiled. "Finish up your flyer, and we'll give Heiji the signal."

"Right," Ally nodded, putting the last finishing touches on his flyer and then turning to Jordan, who moaned and sat up, clutching onto his skull.

"What the… Who…?" Jordan looked over to Ally, then, then to his brother, who laid passed out on the floor. "What in the hell happened in the five minutes I was passed out? And who hits like a pro boxer?!"

"It's part of the plan, and that'd be your sister," Ally answered, lifting up the flyer and turning to Jordan. "Hop on…"

"This has to be the third most awkward thing I've ever done," Jordan muttered, coming behind Ally and gripping onto the flyer as well. "You ever fly one of these things?"

"You kidding?" Ally chuckled. "I don't even know if I put the damn thing together right!"

Jordan's face read worry, but this soon disappeared as Heiji was signaled, and several blocks around the hotel went pitch black.

While Jordan and Ally escaped, Max and Emily took this opportunity to make a run for it, Emily zooming away before the police to turn on their high beams and catch the two.

"Let's go back to my place," Max panted.

"Let's take you to an asylum!" Emily shouted. "You could've killed both of us!"

"But I didn't," Max counted. "We're fine, and… Alive, thank G-d…"

"You're insane for wanting another kid… You shouldn't be allowed to breed," Emily said with a stern shake of the head. "A lunatic like you lands a guy, and I'm still single…"

"Try throwing a few pieces of furniture through a window or having monthly freak outs… I managed to get a guy that way," Max said with a weak smile, and then there was a silence between the two, followed by an outburst of laughter.

"I'm a getaway driver, and you're a felon!" Emily laughed wildly.

"Yeah… Heheh… If I weren't in the same boat, I could arrest you…" Max said with a small friendly chuckle, and then the two fell back into a serene silence.

Meanwhile, on a rooftop of a local office building, Jordan rose from on top of an aching Ally, and then looked at the destroyed hang glider pieces surrounding them, "Next time, I fly the damn glider…"

"Hey, we got out of there with our lives," Ally muttered, dusting himself off and then stretching back a bit. "Guess I better hail a cab…"

"I'm not splitting the faire," Jordan muttered as he limped over to the door that led to the stairs. "My ass never took a beating this bad when I was a working solo…"

The Zenigata-Lupin Household, later that night:

It was first Fuji who trudged in, followed by Heiji, who tiredly lugged his equipment into the household, and then a bruised Ally and Jordan followed. This parade was continued by a frowning Leo, who now sported a bruise on the back of his neck. He glared at the four, and Fuji gave a well-meaning smile. Max and Emily came in afterward, their smiles fading after they entered the somber room, and Odori, Ryo, and Yukiko, who all had been eating pickled plums and watching television on the couch, only looked about the room curiously.

"If my kids weren't in the house, I'd kill you," Leo said with a frown to his sister. "I'm gonna get a shower…"

"I'm going with him," Max added quickly, following him upstairs as quickly as possible.

"I'm… Gonna forget that they just said that," said Ally, rubbing his shoulder. He walked over to Jordan, and patted his cohort upon the back on his way out. "Well, gotta catch a flight to practice and somehow see the wife and kid before that…"

"Sounds like fun," Jordan said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, so says the guy who's only engaged," Ally snorted, walking out of the room and leaving a puzzled Jordan behind.

"Don't worry, you'll get it when you and Dori-chan are on kid number five," Fuji reassured him, patting him on the shoulder as she passed and then she, too, exited the house.

"What in the hell does that mean?" Jordan asked Odori, who only shrugged and popped another plum in her mouth.

"I wish we would've talked about kids a little more," Ryo sniffed quietly.

"I… I'm gonna go take a smoke," Yukiko said shakily, heading out to the back yard.

"It's okay, I still don't get it, either," Heiji chuckled as he headed toward the kitchen exit, but something caught his eye as he passed the window overlooking the backyard. He leaned forward, swearing he saw a tall figure on the deck, a figure that was soon joined by Yukiko. "The hell…?" He muttered, and then headed out to investigate.


	6. Someone Saved my Life Tonight

DISCLAIMER: Yeah, don't own it, but I'll be damned if I didn't order the movies off line only to find out they were releasing a box set of the friggin' things --

Howdy hullo!

Happy holidays!! Hope all's well with everyone, and that everyone's enjoying the holidays so far. I also hope that those who still do take exams remember to take the time to relax… By reading this, bwahaha… But anyway, enjoy as always, and I love to hear back from you. So have a restful break, dear readers, and I hope that you all enjoy the chapter : )

Fun fact of boredom: This is the only chapter I've ever written in a different state (not really fun, but if you knew how very little I get out of my own state you'd understand the significance of it).

Chapter Six: Someone Saved my Life Tonight

"What the hell… You're staying at the guy's place, you ate with him… What are you gonna do next—him!? What's it gonna take you to wipe this guy out, Kiko!?" Hatcher demanded from the shadows while Yukiko merely looked onward coolly, her hands in her pockets and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. "Look what I'm giving you…"

"I know, but there's something else I need. The deal ain't sweet enough…"

"Jesus, I oughta pay someone to kill YOU!"

"That'd be damn near impossible, Hatch. I'm one of the best…"

"And now, you're my best," Hatcher said with a smile, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. "You're mine, Kiko. You realize, I friggin' own you…And as long as I own you, you do what the hell I tell you to, which means off that little rat bastard!"

While this conspired, Heiji remained hidden in a nearby shrub in the back of the Lupin-Zenigata household. He had on him his headphones, and also carried with him a satellite, to pick up Yukiko and Hatcher's exchange even more clearly.

"I… I'll do it… I just need a little more time, is all…"

"I've given you nothing but time, faith, and money, and now I'm thinkin' it was a mistake to give you any of that…" Hatcher turned away from her gruffly and headed to the shadows of the back of the yard. "You got three days to wipe him out, or I'll make you more than half-blind!"

Yukiko's teeth gritted at this, and she watched as best as she could as Hatcher submerged himself into the shadows, and practically jumped as she heard a rustling from where Heiji stay hidden.

"Who the hell's there?" she demanded, jumping from the porch and toward the bush, her gun drawn in case she had to make a quick decision. She pushed aside some of the plants carefully, but found no one.

As she left, Heiji was glad she hadn't looked upward in the tree on the side of the house, the same tree he was currently hidden in. He carefully hopped down, wiped his forehead and then shakily put away his equipment. It was when he was putting away his headset he felt the gun to the back of his head.

"You really think I'm stupid, don't you?" Yukiko said with a Jigen-like frown of intensity as she stood over him, a freshly lit cigarette between her lips. "You must think I'm a moron if you didn't think I'd think you'd go up in the tree for cover. Only questions are now did Toshiro send you and exactly how much of that did you hear?"

"I saw a guy out here with you, I thought it could have been Toshiro," answered Heiji as he made as much contact with her eyes as possible. "And I know you're under contract to kill someone, I'm just not sure who…"

"And that's the only reason you're still alive," Yukiko replied, but failed to ease her grip on her weapon. "I'll give you the opportunity to forget this, but only because I don't have the right materials to hide a body right now."

"Yukiko, I know that you don't get along with Toshiro that much, but… Whatever it is, he can help you, I'm sure. We all can," Heiji explained while looking about for a quick exit.

"I can help myself. I don't need anyone," Yukiko said with a growl. "Teaming up with Fuji, getting married, going along with all of this for years, it was all a mistake."

"So your daughter was a mistake, too?"

"The only good one I've made," Yukiko replied, pulling back the trigger.

"What're you guys doing?" both turned their heads suddenly to Dako, who stood on the porch with Avery's hand clutching hers. Both were dressed in pajamas, and Avery held a glass of water much too large for his tiny hand.

"We…." Heiji rose and pushed away the butt of Yukiko's gun, and smiled at the children. "Yukiko was outside smoking, though she heard someone, and she came out to investigate, and, well, found me!"

"But… What were you doing outside?" Dako continued.

Yukiko eyed Heiji worriedly, and he only smiled and shrugged. "I was having trouble getting a signal on my computer…."

"Oh…. Well, Dad and Pop have one you can use, upstairs," Dako added, pointing to the house.

"Yeah, I'll do just that…"

"We'll be in in a minute," Yukiko added with a smile and a nod.

"Yeah… Just… Don't do anything weird…. Well, try…." Dako said unassuredly, tugging Avery along into the kitchen and then quickly shutting the door.

"You say anything and you're dead," Yukiko warned Heiji, placing her gun in her holster and turning away from him.

"He must not have married you for the brains," Heiji added as Yukiko headed back into the house after the children and completely ignoring Ishikawa in the process.

Upstairs, Jared, too, had awoken from his sugar-induced sleep, yawned, stretched and headed down the hall to the bathroom, "Heh, I don't need any rubber sheets, I'll show them…." He muttered confidently to himself as he headed into the bathroom and moments later ventured back out, victorious. As he trudged back down the hall, he became aware of what sounded like a sobbing, and peaked into the guest bedroom, where he found Ryo curled up on her bed with her head upon her knees. "Umm… You… You okay?"

"Huh?" Ryo sniffed and immediately began to wipe her face as she became aware of Jared's presence. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine…."

"You don't cry because you're fine…" Jared added, stepping closer to her cautiously. "Um, you want a drink or something? Milk's pretty good, and we've always got a ton of it, for some reason…"

"If your dad could mix it with Bourbon, I don't think he'd drink anything else," Ryo said with a chuckle, wiping her reddened eyes and smiling. "Your name's Jared, right?"

"Um, yeah…"

"You can take a seat, if you want, Jared," Ryo patted the area on the bed beside her and smiled, and Jared uneasily followed her instructions and seated himself next to her. "You look a lot like your dad…"

"I get that a lot… Even my mom used to tell me that…"

"What happened to your mom?"

"I dunno," Jared admitted with a shrug. "I haven't seen her in a while…. She just kinda left, but she always liked doing that…"

"So did your dad, when he was younger…. But I think he's all done running, now, lucky for you," Ryo said with a slight chuckle, leaning back against the headboard.

"Weren't you his girlfriend before he went, all… Ya know…?"

"Yeah, I… I was… We were engaged, actually…."

"Jeeze, glad that didn't happen…" Jared said with a shake of the head and a sigh of relief. Ryo gave a puzzled look at this, and he explained in a stutter. "You're nice, it's just that if he'd of married you, there wouldn't be a me, or Dako, or Ave… It's kinda weird having Pop and Dad, but I just tell people that one's my uncle… Usually Dad… They don't ask as many questions, then."

"You get picked on a lot for it?"

"Not really… I just… I don't tell a lot of people, which is probably bad, I know, but…"

"You do what you have to to get by," Ryo said, a smile coming across her lips as she spoke. "I used to be a little embarrassed when I was little, too, but… It was mainly because my Dad was so much older…"

"Grandpa Jigen's, like, ancient! Not like Ojiisan ancient, but he's oldddddd!"

"Yeah, he's pretty old," Ryo chuckled, and glanced down at her numerous golden bracelets. "Hey, I want you to do something for me, Jared…"

"Huh? What's that?"

"Give this to a girl you like, okay?" Ryo unclasped the bracelet at the very end of the row on her left arm and then passed it to the young boy, who read over in the inscription inside.

"This is from Pop… Indy?" he muttered. "You… You ran the Indy 500?!"

"I was eighteen, and he was waiting at the sidelines when I won it…" she replied, rubbing her arm and then looking over the remaining bracelets. "He gave me all of these… They're all major races I've won…"

"I just thought you liked to wear a lot of jewelry," Jared muttered, placing the bracelet in his pant pocket for safety and then hopping off the bed. "Dad and Pop said not to bother you too much, so I better get going before they catch me. I'm already in trouble for not studying when I should be…."

She watched with a smile as he exited nervously, and then allowed herself to finally relax as she rested with her back to the headboard, all the meanwhile, Jared journeyed back to his room. Along the way, he saw Dako walking down the opposite side of the hall, and stepped in front of her in order to stop her.

"….Can I help you?" she asked with an unamused look. Avery had already awoken her, and the last thing she needed now was someone else stopping her on the trek back to her bedroom.

"Here. Urm, hold this for me, will ya?" he removed the bracelet from his pocket, and then placed it on Dako's wrist. It barely stayed there due to the small size of her hands, and she looked it over curiously.

"Did you steal this?" she asked accusingly, her eyes shifting away from the bracelet to him.

"N-no! Ryo just wanted me to look after it, but I think you'd be the more responsible one out of us," Jared stuttered, looking away from her and toward his bedroom. "I'm… Gonna head to bed, now…"

"Yeah… Don't forget to put those sheets on your bed!" Dako called.

"I don't need those!" Jared yelled angrily, and then slammed the door on his way back into his bedroom.

"Heh… He's got good taste, though…" Dako muttered as she glanced at the bracelet and then continued on to her room.

Yukiko had escaped once more, this time with the help of a rope she kept with her in her jacket. She looked upward at the house, and then broke into a run, not exactly where she was headed. She saw Ryo through the guest bedroom window for a moment, but then vanished into the shadows before her sister could get a good look at the fleeing gunwoman and blow her otherwise quiet exit. She wanted no bells and whistles and certainly no one fighting over her leaving, so her only option had been to escape like a rouge teenager.

'_Spain_'_s too obvious… Maybe run away to Japan_ _for a little while, and let this all fly over… But if I don't kill him, Hatcher'll find someone else, I friggin' know it! And Hatch would go after Saiyuri, too…' _she thought to herself as she hurriedly along down the street of the rural Paris outskirts, her hands in her pockets in order to retrieve some warmth. She had gone into panic mode once again, and had only time to grab her gun and fedora and head out. She no longer wanted to deal with people, or the underworld. She just wanted to run back to the days of the shooting range with her father, or even before that, when her mother would have her sit in the diner where she worked long hours while Yukiko merely colored away.

"Waitress… That ain't a bad life… I'd look good in the uniform, and my balance ain't too bad…" Yukiko muttered, not even stopping to remove a cigarette from her pack and then reaching for her lighter. She cursed as she found it was out of fluid, then tossed the silver Zippo to the ground while calculating the closest route to the airport.

She suddenly felt a breeze behind her, and turned about, gun drawn. She looked to the snow-covered sidewalk and saw that not only were there footprints, the Zippo was now placed gently upon a bench. Yukiko nearly gulped down her cigarette, then turned back around, nearly running into the chest of a much taller man. Taking a few steps back, she realized it was Toshiro, who looked downward at her silently and coldly. He looked as though he were about to attack her, and Yukiko reacted to his sudden presence the only way she knew how.

Yukiko shook for a few more moments before collapsing, and Toshiro was quick to rush to her and then lift her into his arms. His expression turned to worry as he looked her over, and he then disappeared from the street as silently as he had arrived.

When Yukiko awoke, the first thing she noticed was the warmth. As she became more aware of her surroundings, she gasped and sat up in the bed, bunching the covers around herself and then looking around for any clues as to where she might be. It was now daytime, and from what she could tell, it was a small cottage. She became aware of yells coming from outside, and wrapped herself in one of the sheets before heading to the window.

Half of Toshiro's gi was down, revealing his right shoulder (the same one that bore the two bullets he had taken for Yukiko years previous) as he slashed through the bales of hay circling him. From the area surrounding him, Yukiko could only guess they were in a forest of some kind. She turned around to look around the room, and only found one of his kimonos, a dark blue one, "Christ, this is gonna look huge on me…." Indeed she did look like a child wearing her father's kimono as she wrapped it about herself and tied the sash, and then headed out to watch the samurai.

He didn't notice her for a moment or two as he chopped through another bale of hay, making a clean slice, but then sheathed his swords as he noticed her, and headed to her.

"You… You dyed your hair again…" she said quietly, noting the bright-red hue.

"Nah, I just got so pissed that it turned this color," he said with a smirk, adjusting his gi and then looking her over for a few moments. "That's a good look for you…"

"I'm sure you had an even better look," Yukiko replied, folding her arms and watching as Toshiro's face slightly reddened, and he cleared his throat and headed back inside with her following close behind.

"How long have I been out? Since last night?"

"Two days," Toshiro answered as he poured himself a cup of tea in the small French-style kitchen and then poured one for her, passing her the delicate cup and looking curiously at the horrified expression on her face. "What, not an Earl Grey fan?"

"I've only got one more day," Yukiko muttered, setting the tea cup down on the table and slumping into one of the wooden chairs.

"For what?"

"Nothing, you… You wouldn't be interested, okay?"

"If I weren't, I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?" Toshiro countered while Yukiko rose and pulled the kimono tighter.

"What'd you do with my suit?"

"It's at the cleaner's, still… The damn thing looked awful…" Toshiro murmured. "I should've thrown it away on you…"

"You do that and I'll kill you, you—"

"Who's Hatcher?" Toshiro asked quickly, beating Yukiko to any writhing comments she would have otherwise made about him. Her face fell, and she grew pale, seating herself once more and only looking downward quietly. "Yukiko, I…"

He reached over and placed his hands upon her shoulders, and she leaned forward and began to break once more, "Listen, if all you're looking for is, damn it, I don't know what you want! God, whatever it is, just do it, okay? I don't care anymore… I just don't care…"

"I wanna help you," he bent down and kissed her on the forehead gently. "I don't know who that guy is, what he or you are involved in, nor do I really honestly want to know. But I do want to help you, Yuki… Jeeze, you're not the girl who used to tell me to shove it, anymore… I miss that… What happened to you?"

"I just… I screwed up a lot of things really bad," she leaned inward and embraced him, much to Toshiro's surprise, and he sat her on his lap as he eased her onto the kitchen floor with him. "I… Jesus, I've made everyone friggin' hate me…"

"They don't…"

"Yeah, yeah they do…"

"I don't," he said quietly, and she stopped and looked upward to him. "I… I went back to the theater for a little while… There was even a girl there…"

"What happened with her, eh? You guys seeing one another, yet?"

"She told me she loved me… And I had to let her down easy…"

"Why do you do that crap to yourself?! You've got everything going for you, and you screw it up because of me."

"Eh, I've been doing that since I was nine," he chuckled. "I've known you and dealt with you for nearly thirty years, Yukiko Yazuka/Jigen/Ishikawa/Jigen… You throw fits, I know that. And I ain't gonna let another one screw up everything I've been working for. Now… C'mon, just tell me what's wrong, and I'll see what I can do. You'll have the Rat Clan and the Ishikawa Clan behind you…"

"I promised Hatcher I'd kill Lupin the Fourth… The, the old Lupin the Fourth," she said quietly. "And that I'd have Leo dead by tomorrow…"

"…Jesus, Yukiko…."

A Paris Hospital, the room of Victor Lupin:

"So, nothing at all?"

"I'm really sorry, dear… The rater that he's going, though…" the nurse sighed and looked to Ryo apologetically. "We may need you here a little later to sort out some forms…"

"What…? What kind of forms?" Ryo wondered aloud, now growing more frantic. "Like… Like death forms?! Like forms that give those crap doctors permission to peck over him like a vulture?! How heartless do you think I am?!" she yelled, and lunged for the nurse, but Fuji and Leo quickly caught her and drug her away from the spooked nurse. "I'm not going to let you do that crap to him! He'll be fine!"

"Ryo…" Leo took her by the shoulders and sighed. "Maybe you should… I don't know, call a priest… If you want, Max is nearly qualified to be a Rabbi, and he could say a few prayers…"

Max, from the corner of the hospital waiting room, looked upward at his partner and hoped it wouldn't come to this, mainly due to the fact that most of the prayers he remembered were Hanukkah or wedding-themed.

"He's going to be all right!" Ryo shouted, pushing Leo back. "He's not going to leave me, all right?! Victor's not like you, he doesn't leave people he promises to love!"

"Ryo-san…" Fuji quietly approached her friend. "It…. It's gonna happen to us all, someday…"

"Oh, so the jerk who got caught losing it to another guy on his parents' bed gets a clean bill of health, but my husband's going to die?!" Ryo laughed in disbelief, oblivious to Max's embarrassed silence and Fuji's gaping mouth. "Oh… And don't go looking so friggin' stunned, Fuji… You're even worse than him… You're the whore who did my brother and nearly ended his marriage… At least Max was looking for a little love… You're the worst of all, though, Ari… You fool us all… Time and time again… You should've died a long time ago. I wish you were the one there instead of him. I really do…"

She then stormed back into Victor's room, leaving the room in complete silence, save for small whimpers which sounded from Ryo. Leo sat down and reached out to Max, taking his hand and holding it, "She's just upset… We'd be like that if it were us…"

"….You're the only one who I ever told that to… About me and Jake…." Max said quietly, looking upward to Leo with glassy eyes and then pulling his hand away. He rose after several attempts, pushing away any help Leo went to assist him, and then headed out to the smoking area of the hospital.

"…I'd like to say that it'll get better once Victor comes out of it," Fuji said quietly. "But… I'm not sure if it will."

"Shut up for once in your life, Fuji… You're the one I told that to, and I trusted you with it," Leo muttered to his sister.

"You need to tell him, Ari… It's what's fair. Even if he hates you, you need to tell him," Fuji said quietly. "And… If he's the Max I know, he'll still love you…"

"Listen, if I wanted to hear someone read me off fortune cookies, I'd go to Odori…"

"Where're you heading to now?"

"…To tell him the whole truth… About Charely… About everything…." Leo sighed, tilting his head down and then trudging to the glass doors which Max had exited through moments previous. Fuji sighed, placed her hands in her pockets, and then glanced in the hospital room.

"…I pissed them off pretty bad, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but… They'll still love you," Fuji sighed as she looked over Victor and reached upward, brushing back the buzzcut and smirking. "He wasn't always a bastard… A lot of things made him that way. His dad was a grade-A, jerk, but his mom's an angel… He grew up having to defend her, though…. He was her eyes to the world, and her best little guard…. Hehe.. He was always so protective of people he loved, or he seemed that way, at least."

"He is…" Ryo grasped onto his hand and kissed it, then looked upward to Fuji. "Could you…. Maybe…"

"I'll let them know you're sorry," Fuji said with a nod.

"Thanks," Ryo wiped her eyes with her free hand, and smiled lightly as Fuji walked around to the other side of the bed and embraced her gently. Fuji then headed out, a serene look upon her face, which soon vanished as she heard shots fired. She then drew her gun, pulled her jacket over her head, and ran toward the smoking balcony, where she had heard the shots.

A cottage in the French forest:

"So, that's all of it, right?" Toshiro had switched from tea to a bottle of Chardonnay he had found in the refrigerator, and Yukiko only sighed from the bathroom. Toshiro rose from the bed and set the bottle down, then headed towards the bathroom. "Ugh, crap, I thought you were done… Sorry…" he quickly turned away after glancing in and seeing her still in the bathtub, with a surprised look upon her face.

"Ain't nothing you haven't seen before," Yukiko muttered, wringing out her hair and sitting up a bit in the tub.

"I know, but…"

"Heh, then give me a minute and I'll get a towel," Yukiko shooed him away, and Toshiro sighed in relief and waited in the bedroom until she emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped about herself. "Better?"

"Not really," Toshiro answered with a weak smile. "Urm, why don't you take a seat and I'll grab that kimono…"

"Heh, Mr. Ishikawa, your face is matching your hair," Yukiko smirked, and Toshiro only gave a chuckle and headed to his suitcase, pulling out a black suit bag and hat box.

"Hey, who usually stays here?" she called from the bedroom.

"Urm, one of my sisters," Toshiro answered. "She graduated, and she's a translator here now…"

"Don't say…" from the bedroom, Yukiko now had the closet doors open and was scanning through the clothing, occasionally pulling out a outfit and looking it over curiously.

"You… Urm… You'd look good in that one," Toshiro said half-jokingly as he watched her look over a red, thick-strapped and short dress.

"Don't push it," she placed the dress back in the closet, and turned around to face Toshiro, pulling the towel closer to herself and examining the suit bag. She took it from him, laid it on the bed, and unzipped it, her eyes flying wide as she noticed that instead of her gray suit before her there looked back at her her white suit. Toshiro placed a hand on her shoulder, and Yukiko jumped in surprise, her shock continuing as he produced her white fedora.

"I saved your stuff for you…" he answered sheepishly. "Actually… Saiyuri wouldn't let me toss it out, even at my most pissed…"

Yukiko took the hat and smiled as she looked it over, and set it down upon the yellow comforter of the bed, "You know, I…. I'm not quite sure if I want to start with… I'm not sure… I… Maybe we could start off as friends? You make it really hard to hate you when you're so damned nice to me all of the time. Plus you're about the only one right now who doesn't think I'm some kind of a whore."

"I think I can do friends right now," Toshiro said with a confident smile, bending down but instead his lips meeting with one of her fingers.

"Friends, remember?"

"You make it hard sometimes," he said with a smirk, backing away from her and turning to exit the room. "I'm gonna clean up breakfast, then we'll head out…."

"Take this with you!" Yukiko called, tossing him the towel, and Toshiro glanced upward only briefly, his face turning red.

"Aw, crap! Ugh, sorry…" he tripped over his sandals on his way to the kitchen, muttering to himself. "This ain't gonna be easy," he said to himself with a sigh as he headed toward the kitchen.

He was doing the dishes when she walked out, dressed in her old white suit. It was hard to believe that the already small suit was large on her, and Toshiro paused for a moment as he looked her over with a smile of approval, "You look great…"

"You're a crappy liar," Yukiko said with a chuckle, removing a cigarette from her pack and watching as Toshiro took the cigarette and put it in his own mouth.

"This stuff isn't good for you and… Are you wearing makeup?" he wondered aloud, removing the cigarette from his own mouth and leaning in to take a better look at her.

"Erm… My phone's ringing…"

"Yeah, friggin' right…"

"No, really," she pulled out her vibrating phone and turned away from his to answer. "Hello? Yeah… Yeah? Oh, crap! Be right there!" she quickly hung up the phone and looked to him with wide-eyed rush in her face. "Hatcher's trying to make his own moves, now. He's attacking them at the hospital."

"That's not too far a ride from here…" Toshiro set aside his dish towel and headed to the front door.

"Don't you mean a drive?"

"Nope, ride," he smiled and reached for his key, and raised an eyebrow as he noticed Yukiko chuckling. "Erm, what's wrong?"

"You might wanna take off the apron, Julia Childe," Yukiko reached around his back and untied the white frilled apron, then helped him pull it over his head.

"You _are _wearing makeup!" Toshiro laughed. "What, are you trying to impress me?"

"I just look tired; don't flatter yourself," Yukiko quickly answered, heading out of the house with Toshiro following behind. She groaned as she laid eyes on the yellow Vespa, and Toshiro merely smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

"Just like old times… Except, well, you didn't wear makeup…"

"Would you quiet about the friggin' makeup already and drive!? I've got an old bastard to kill…"

The Paris Hospital:

"Max, you all right?!" Leo gasped, grabbing onto the fallen Zenigata's arm and shaking while doing so. Bullets had been fired, and Max had pushed down his husband onto the concrete, saving them both from a barrage of bullets. He had watched the gray-haired gunman then run off, and they had managed to crawl behind a large flowerbed and get out of his sight in case he decided to come back with even more fire.

"Get off of me," Max snapped, pushing away from Leo and beginning to right himself on his crutch. Leo attempted to help once more, but Max only slapped him away. The rest of the gang had gathered outside at this point, including Ryo. It was uncomfortable watching Zenigata rise without any help and much struggle, and Fuji knew form the sick feeling in her stomach that Leo had told him.

"Max, I…"

"Just go home, get your stuff, and leave," Max said in a hiss after finally standing, albeit on shaking legs. "Because it's not your home anymore—At least until you grow up."

Leo tried not to pay attention to the group of thieves standing in the background, looking onward in solemn silence, but it was obvious from the red on his face that he knew of their presence. Max hobbled past them, turning about and spitting out venomously, "Don't you people have friggin' lives!? …The hell… And they always said I was the immature one!"

He headed to the elevator, and no one attempted to stop him, not even Leo, and Leo Lupin watched as Max entered the elevator, quickly shut the doors, and was gone. The Lupin gang then slowly drew their attention back to them, and his mouth opened to speak, but no words came out. Only more shots, as Hatcher had returned with more ammo, and now continued to fire at him. Leo ducked down out of instinct, although he considered allowing a few of the bullets to pierce him.

There was silence a few moments after that, except for the shots from Fuji's Walther ringing out, and then there came the sound of an engine. All looked about in mild confusion, and even Hatcher drew his weapon back, wondering what had them so surprised.

"…Kiko?" he muttered as the stairwell door burst open, and out zoomed a familiar red Vespa, with a red-headed samurai at the handlebars and a petite woman in a white suit gripping onto him with one hand while in the other she held a magnum. They screeched to a halt, and all watched for a few stunned moments of silence, to which Yukiko only gave a smug smile.

"What, you never seen a broad with a gun before?" she smiled, and Fuji's look of confusion broke into one, as well.

"Glad to have you back, Yuki…" she whispered right before Hatcher fired another shot, grazing the Lupin daughter. She, Ryo, and now Yukiko drew their guns, only to find him vanished.

"Jesus, this is all my fault…" Leo muttered.

"Nah, if anyone's it's mine… I'm the one who was supposed to kill you," Yukiko shrugged, reloading her magnum.

"What?!" Leo yelped.

"Could we possibly talk about this over tea later?" Ally snapped, "That bum doesn't seem like the kind to just retreat…"

"He isn't, trust me…" Yukiko replied, looking about the roof tensely. She nearly shot at her sister as Ryo's cell phone went off, and all quietly listened as Ryo answered the phone and her face lined with terror.

"He's here, all right…" she said in a whisper, shutting her phone. "He's, urm… He's in Victor's hospital room… He said he wants you, Yuki…"

Yukiko looked over her shoulder to Toshiro, but Leo quickly interjected, "Damn it, no, this stops right here. I'm the one he wants, so I'm going to give him just that…. All this over some stupid piece of art…. And they call me screwed up with my priorities…."

"Ari…" Fuji placed a hand on his shoulder, but he was quick to shrug this off.

"Fuji, I just screwed myself out of anything possibly good. I've officially got nothing left, now," Leo's eyes were lit with a fierceness his sister had not seen in years, and this made Fuji understandably frightened of what he might do. The last time Fuji had seen this fierce determination was during the one time he had dared to go up against their father—Ari had lost, but had put up quite a fight in the process.

"…Okay…. You're going to have backup, though," Fuji replied, trying to match his sternness. "Ally, Toshiro…."

"You even try and I'll arrest you, Fuji, and make sure they toss out the key," Leo returned, heading down the stairs with his weapon drawn.

He practically jumped from flight to flight of stairs, rushing down the hall and drowning out the screams of the surprised nurses that he passed down the hall, as well as the alarm that went off soon after. He found Victor's room, and found Hatcher, but much to his sudden horror he found a crutch at Hatcher's feet as the gray-haired man sat with a gun beside the comatose Victor.

"….What'd you do to him?" Leo looked above his glasses to Hatcher, who merely remained smiling smugly.

"Nothing, yet… I think what you're trying to ask me is what I've done _with _him," Hatcher chuckled. "You know, for a linguist, your English really sucks when you're angry…. I just want what's mine, Lupin…"

"I don't know where it is!" Leo snapped. "It's just a stupid statue!"

"Na-ah… It's a porcelain doll, and it's got something very precious in it…" Hatcher explained. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have to kidnap your boyfriend and this poor son of a bitch sure as hell wouldn't have gotten shot!"

"….I don't understand…"

"Doesn't really surprise me," Hatcher jumped to his feet and kicked aside the crutch into the corner of t he hospital room and approached Leo, his gun now focused off of Victor. "It's stuffed with blue pearls, you idiot!"

"…Blue… Wait, those don't…"

"What the hell do you know?" Hatcher snorted. "They do exist, but they only come from one part of the Indian Ocean… I could make friggin' millions off them, I wouldn't have to jackass around with pillow-biters who dress like Goddamn Captain Kangaroo!"

"You… You put him in a coma…. And you crippled my husband… Just for… Some stupid jewelry…" Leo whispered, and removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. His shoulders than began to bob, and Hatcher frowned as Leo broke into full laughter.

"What the… Don't laugh at me… I said don't laugh at me!" Hatcher barked, but Leo could not quit. He had to fight back tears from the laughter as he struggled to speak.

"You mean you… Ha ha! Oh… Oh my God… Hehee…. That's the punchline—Pearls? God, and I thought Max had a crap sense of humor… HAHA!"

"Stop laughing at me you Goddamn queer!" Hatcher was red in the face as Leo continued his laughter, and aimed the gun at Lupin, but Leo's laughing immediately ceased, as did Hatcher's rage.

In the right light, Leo looked remarkably like his father the moment he pointed the gun at the stunned Hatcher. The look on his face showed vacancy, though, the same vacancy he bore almost a decade ago when that officer had been shot, and he had been to blame.

The Lupin gang was there to watch as the shot was fired, and all remained still as Victor did in his bed as Hatcher clutched his chest, looked down at the blood and sunk to his knees, and then finally to the floor.

No cops came, for Heiji had picked up and rerouted the emergency call to his own phone, and this had given time for Odori, Jordan, Toshiro, and Ally to arrive at the scene dressed up in police uniforms, while Fuji and Ryo ran downstairs to lend aide to Leo.

He had no fired the shot. Leo simply let his own Walther slip out of his hand as he looked over Hatcher, while Yukiko stood in the hallway with her pistol still smoking.

She placed it back in its holster quietly as Leo too sunk to the floor, and placed his arms over his hands. The sound he emitted was ungodly, and on many levels even inhuman. It was a wail, followed by successive smaller ones, and Fuji and Ryo remained frozen in confusion as Yukiko turned her head and looked down the hall to see Toshiro helping a hobbling Max walk to the hospital room.

"I found him in a storage closet," Toshiro explained. "He had nearly kicked his way out…"

Max's annoyed expression transformed into worry as he heard the sounds emitting from Victor's room, and he hobbled over, gripping onto the molding of the doorframe for support and then looking down at Leo. He slowly eased himself onto the floor and managed to crawl over to Lupin, and then simply and quietly placed his arms about him from behind.

"You're okay…." Max said in a husky tone.

"I… I was gonna kill him… I… I mean, I…."

"Shh… You're fine…." Max began to slowly rock him back and forth, and placed his own cheek next to Leo's. "We'll all be fine…"

"I… I'm so sorry…."

"It's all right…. Leo, we're all all right…." Max reassured him quietly from the floor as the rest of the gang looked onward in silence.

A few weeks later:

"It's kinda cool having an uncle who's not like, five feet tall," Jared commented as he passed Jordan another high-hanging ornament to place on the top of the tree, which the blond did so with ease while Odori and Natasha worked on a popcorn chain while sitting on the couch. "Did you play basketball or something?"

"No, I'm a surfer…"

"Cool! Could you teach me?!"

"I could, but knowing your parents, they'd kill me…" Jordan replied with a smirk.

"That's okay, if they knew half the stuff I did, I'd be dead!"

"Like what?"

"Yeah, right," Jared snorted. "If I told you, you'd tell on me."

"So… This is your first Hanukkah?" Natasha said with a smile, glancing at Odori.

"Yes…. Very…. Very first," Odori nodded in her ever-improving English as she strung another piece of popcorn onto the thread.

"Okay, now, where's the angel, star of David… Whatever you guys put on top?" Jordan asked as he bent down to face Jared.

"Urm…. I…. I dunno…." Jared admitted after some thought. "I think it's in the garage…"

"Ugh…. Well, let's take a look in the black pit of despair, shall we?" Jordan smiled as he lifted the young boy up, sending Jared into a wild giggle.

"You picked a good one," Natasha said to Odori with a smile as Jordan and Jared made their way into the garage. "He's cute and he looks like the type who'd give you a billion kids!"

"A… billion?"

"A ton… Like maybe, six or seven…"

The needle then went into Odori's index finger, rather deeply, but her pained reaction was delayed as she mused the thought of being the mother of half a dozen tall children in silent fear.

While Natasha attempted to quell the bleeding from the living room, Jared and Jordan were in the garage, sorting through numerous cardboard boxes laying about. Jordan unfolded a poster for a few moments and looked over the poster of Jude Law curiously before putting it back as he heard a triumphant Jared.

"Here, this has _gotta_ be it!" said the young boy confidently, handing the doll in the green flowing gown to Jordan.

"Wow…. She's pretty heavy, Jared, and she doesn't look a lot like an angel…."

"Maybe it's how the French make angels," Jared shrugged, and Jordan found no reason not to accept this theory, so the red-headed porcelain doll was put atop the tree, right beside the _Baby's First Christmas _ornament.

"Looks great!" Jared said with a wide smile as he looked over to his sister, who was concentrating setting the table for dinner while Avery followed Fujiko's every move in the kitchen.

It was when Natasha heard cursing and smelt the familiar smell of smoke that she left the bleeding Odori's side to stop the flaming wreckage that had been squab, and Jared excitedly ran behind her to get a good look at the damage. This left Jordan and Odori alone in the living room with only the Christmas tree and Odori's pain for company. Namiko had been assigned the task of aiding Dako, while Zenigata and Lupin had taken Max to retrieve Leo from his temporary home.

"How many children were we planning on?" Odori inquired after a moment.

"We're planning on more kids?" Jordan returned with a few clueless blinks, and Odori was about to speak when there came a call for her help in the kitchen.

"We'll talk once I quell the flames," Odori announced, leaving Jared there to breath a sigh of relief. He glanced upward to the 'angel' for a few moments, noticing how the dress almost made a pair of fins, but disregarded this as minor when the question of children was once again on the horizon.


	7. Miracle of Miracles

NOTENOTENOTENOTE

I think that there was a screw up, and that only half of this chapter loaded orginally. If this is the case, someone let me know, so I know I'm not nuts. I just have the feeling becuase I tried to upload the chapter on two terrific computers, and both ended at the same spot; where Dako and Max are talking. So hopefully it loaded fully the first time, and if not, well, heck, bonus!! Well, catch ya'll later!

NOTENOTENOTENOTE

DISCLAIMER: Asked for the rights for Lupin for Christmas, but all I got was socks… Eh well, my feet were cold anyway….

Hap-py Birthday!

Bah, this would've been out sooner, but I've been visited by the ten plagues of colds, anything short of raining frogs. –glances at umbrella at the side of the bed-I'm plenty prepared, though. Well, here's hoping that everyone had a nice holiday, and that this year will treat you kindly. Now inbewteen swallows of Ramen, my current addiction during the duration of this hell known as the common cold, I will finish up the last bits and hope that you enjoy it and please give me your feedback. Thanks a million for your readership

--Lucy

Fun Fact of Boredom: Haircuts always have special meaning, and I don't always plan it like that. Fuji got one after becoming a bit more mature, Yukiko cut her hair after breaking up with Toshiro while he let his hair go gray—In Japan haircuts actually signify a breakup with someone, although I kinda use it on several different levels, hehe.

Chapter Seven:

A Paris Cottage:

"Ay, que bueno, Senorita, que bueno!" Leo clapped several times at Yukiko's handiwork, and she merely turned about and smiled with slight embarrassment. "Es muye calindo!"

"Et tu es mucho calinte," Toshiro added from the back of the room, and Leo turned around and smiled.

"You said that like you'd be saying that to a guy, and I always thought you thought of me as more of a friend," Leo chuckled, which was disrupted by Saiyuri hopping on Lupin's lap to show him her latest masterpiece.

"Look! It's the tree Mama made!" Saiyuri held up the drawing to Leo, who gave a nod, although the 'tree' in the crudely colored picture looked more like a cat he had once owned, in all actuality.

"That's really good, Saiyuri!" Leo smiled and embraced her about the waist, and she giggled and then frowned in curiosity as she noticed the bandage beneath his watch.

"What happened ?" she wondered aloud, looking over his hand that bore scratches in addition to the bandage about his wrist.

"I did something silly…" he answered with a sigh, not divulging the details as to how "silly" meant that he had smashed a window out of anger before being drug off by Toshiro and Ally out of the hospital room and then driven to the cottage where Toshiro and Yukiko had been staying for the past few weeks. His other hand bore similar scars, although bandages were needed around his actual hand on this one.

"Honey, why don't you go hang that on the fridge?" Toshiro instructed the young girl sweetly, and she merely looked upward at her father.

"You're taller, Daddy!"

"Oh, not that much taller…. And you know what, if you're on my shoulders, I'll bet we'll be able to reach the top of the fridge!" Toshiro lifted the young girl up and onto his shoulders, to which she gave a squeal of delight. "Maybe we'll even find those cookies Mommy hides all for herself!"

"You touch those and you're dead!" Yukiko called, adjusting some of the tinsel on the table-top tree and then taking a seat beside Leo and looking over her handiwork critically.

"It's okay, I already ate most of them, anyway," Leo said with a smile, and Yukiko merely gave him a look that could melt flesh. "Jeeze, it…. It's a joke! I need a little humor now… I'm really nervous… Fuji's going to be there with Heiji, and Ally and Carmen are coming, too… And they're all going to be waiting to see how long it takes for me to tweak out…"

"Relax… Maybe you should skip this night and take Max out for drinks or something…"

"I can't drink with the stuff I'm on now… I'm not even supposed to be near anything sharp…"

"I can tell, you look like crap," Yukiko tilted her fedora up and sighed. "Listen, I don't let many people in on this, but I can cut hair, and I'm damn good at it… Lemme have a whack at that mop, there… You look like someone out of the Monkees as is.."

"Great, not even like a Beatle… " he muttered, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Nah, it's just because you… Kinda look like a monkey… Ya know…"

"….Cute…. Ugh, Max is never going to trust me again…"

"Maybe, maybe not, but it'll be harder not to let you move back in if you look like you did when he first started liking you."

"What's with the whole 'Gunwoman's Eye for the Queer Guy' treatment? Did Fuji put you up to this?"

"Honestly, yeah, and the bribe was good," answered Yukiko rising and heading to the bathroom. "Just sit down and let me grab a pair of scissors and a razor… If you go to do anything to yourself I'll just shoot at you. I'll try not to hit anything vital."

"Point made…" Leo seated himself on the toilet seat as she searched for these items, and cleared his throat after a few moments' pause. "This was really nice of you and Toshiro saving me from a trip to the psych ward… I… I'll find some way to repay you, I swear it…"

"Eh, it keeps Toshiro from trying to pull some moves on me…" Yukiko answered with a shrug as she pulled out a cigarette from her pocket and placed the unlit stick in her mouth as she took a towel and wrapped it about his shoulders. "How do you want it?"

"Eh, give me my usual," he replied, and she went to snipping away at the hair, Leo sighing as he watched it fall to the ground at her black and white shoes. "You know, the first time we met, he cut my hair…"

"Sounds like a nice enough date. First time I met Toshiro, we practiced throwing rocks at carp… We looked around for some fireworks to blow some fish outta the water, but no dice. I still don't know how well that works," she muttered as she paused to look over the work for a moment, and then nodded and continued on.

"We… We were such klutzes… We practically destroyed the Interpol offices…He… They were re-caulking the windows in the offices, and I got a bunch in my hair, and he had to cut it right there in the bathroom… I'd never liked the short haircut before, but I kept it like that until I started seeing Charley…"

"Why'd you change it?"

"I guess because she liked it, and… You don't know what it's like to suddenly be expected to care for someone like that… I mean, he was in a wheelchair for the first few months… Between that, the depression, and… We have no sex life, as is… Honestly, we haven't in months…"

"Try being pregnant and trying to… It's like doing it with a beach ball in between both of you…" Yukiko murmured. "Why… Why can't you guys….?"

"It's complicated, but long story short those metal pieces in his spine are still working themselves out, and… Yeah, last time we tried his back froze up…"

"Jesus…"

"And I was prettymuch trapped beneath him…"

"Hehe…"

"And I had to call my dad to help…"

"Now that's love…" Yukiko chuckled. "Who got you the phone?"

"A lot of effort," he replied. "How's it coming?"

"Well, if I were to stop now you'd have a mullet…"

"….Keep going…"

"You got it, Boss," she chuckled, and glanced back to see Toshiro in the hallway smiling as she worked.

"So you finally did quit the thieving business… And now… You cut hair…"

"And color," Yukiko answered while still in concentration, sighing and standing back a moment and reaching into her pocket once again. "Ugh…. Either of you laugh and I'll kill you both right here, and the bathroom's probably the best place to do it…" she pulled out a pair of glasses from their case, and then pushed up the oval wireframes onto the bridge of her nose.

"That's hot," Toshiro said with a smile.

"Yeah, even I think so, and I've totally sworn off women," Leo replied with a sheepish smile, and Yukiko only gave a roll of the eyes.

"Yeah, well, deep down, you're still bi…" she gave the final cuts, and took a step back from her handiwork, giving a nod of approval and placing the still unlit cigarette back in her pocket. "Ain't too bad… I don't think he'll be wanting to lay you right there, but it'll get him to notice… Eh, I'd do you…"

"That doesn't say much, because you do him," Leo gave another well meaning look as he pointed to Toshiro, who merely jerked his head back.

"How the hell long have you been doing me again?"

"Shut the hell up, both of you smartasses," Yukiko tossed Leo's towel to Toshiro on her way out, and she was shocked to see Saiyuri looking onward at the three from the hall leading to the living room.

"Why you your cut hair?" she asked, pointing over to Leo, who was busy inspecting himself in the mirror.

"Eh, so he can try to win back a friend… When people get older, they tend to do a lot of things they don't understand…" Yukiko lifted her up, and both mother and daughter watched silently as Toshiro now helped Leo. First came removing Leo's tie, then his glasses.

"And you might wanna keep your sleeves rolled down…" Toshiro instructed as Leo glanced in the mirror once more.

"Erm… I know we've never really talked before this, but… I really do owe you guys one…" Leo said to the two after he found his appearance satisfactory, and not a moment too soon. There was the blaring of a car horn, followed by his father's happy greeting, which was naturally succeeded by his father-in-law's annoyed growl. "I better go before they kill one another… Thanks again…"

"See ya," Toshiro replied in his familiar Brooklyn drawl, and then turned to Saiyuri and Yukiko.

"Wonder why he didn't offer to have us come along…" Yukiko wondered.

"Eh, who knows… Maybe he knows I hate matzo," Toshiro shrugged, when in fact he had threatened Leo within an inch of his life if he were to invite them along to a family function and therefore veto any chance Toshiro had with his ex-wife for a one-on-one talk.

"Well, at least it'll be quiet… And therefore weird…." Yukiko sighed as she walked with Toshiro toward the living room. Saiyuri suddenly gave a chuckle as the samurai stopped, and Yukiko turned around, puzzled.

"Uh-oh!" Saiyuri pointed to the ceiling, where a bit of mistletoe hung.

"…Let's see now, who would be just tall enough to put that up without having to jackass to the back to grab a ladder?" Yukiko asked suspiciously while keeping her eyes upon Toshiro.

Toshiro merely gave a shrug, "Maybe they breed elves taller now… Well, it's either that or bad luck…"

"I don't believe in luck."

"My shoulder says you do," Toshiro smiled and stepped toward her. "Yukiko, I… If you're not ready, I get it… But it wouldn't be anything big…."

Yukiko sighed in defeat, and lifted herself onto her toes, and briefly pecked Toshiro upon the lips, to which the samurai gave a smile.

"You're as bad at that as the day I met you!"

"Well you're no great lover, either," Yukiko returned.

"Daddy, you got lipstick!"

"Heh, so you do wear makeup now…" Toshiro concluded as he wiped the pink off of his mouth. "Did you meet someone?"

"Maybe… I ain't sayin' crap to you, because you get jealous…"

"I learned not to get jealous after that incident with the trash can lid," Toshiro replied swiftly. "I had a welt the size of Fujiyama for the whole week afterward!"

"All you actors are pretty good learners," Yukiko walked into the tiny tree and adjusted a few of the cheap ornaments it was decorated with.

"When's Santa comin'?" Saiyuri asked, tugging on her mother's pant leg.

"Not if you don't go to bed, sweetie…" Yukiko replied, and then added quietly. "Even if worked stunk this year and he couldn't get you a lot…"

"You don't need to worry about that," Toshiro said quietly as he joined her at the tree. "I've got it covered…."

"Listen, no way, I can't let you fund Christmas by yourself…"

"You have any idea how much I saved since I quit drugs?" Toshiro gave a quiet laugh.

"Yeah, but… Listen, I don't know if I can really afford to get you anything…"

"Well… I could say something, but I'm a gentleman…"

"Yeah friggin' right. I didn't get _that _memo. What is it you want?"

"Well, if you'd like me to cook dinner some night, we could… Well…."

"Fine."

"Huh?" he blinked with at this unexpected reaction, and Yukiko merely shrugged this off.

"Why the hell not? You're a gentleman now, afterall, so it'd be just dinner."

"And you'll wear something other than the suit, right?"

"Don't push it," she replied quickly.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied just as quickly, taking Saiyuri into his arms. "And you, young lady… You've got bedtime, now…"

"Noooo," Saiyuri moaned.

"Yeessss," Toshiro laughed, and Yukiko watched at he headed into the bedroom with the little girl. She wished with all of her heart that she could be half the parent he was, but she was still unsure she could ever connect with their child that well.

Outside of the cottage, Leo took a deep breath before entering the car and taking a spot in the back seat, right behind Zenigata. Lupin sat at the wheel, and looked back to his son with a look of astonishment, "So who talked you into finally getting rid of that atrocity of a haircut you did have?"

"Fuji bribed my stylist," Leo answered plainly.

"'Bout time you realized that what works for Ally won't necessarily work for you," Lupin put the car into gear and backed out of the driveway, and Zenigata gave a roll of the eyes. "What's up with you, old man?"

"That's what you call boosting his confidence? And they say monkeys are trainable…. You think your wife would've taught you something. At least she has some sense," Zenigata snorted, and at that moment already Leo silently begged that the earth would swallow him whole. He knew that one of Lupin and Zenigata's famous bickering sessions was on the horizon, and he would have rather had attempted to bolt through glass once again than have to sit through one. He eyed the window beside him as his father backed out, and wondered how bad an idea this would actually be.

"He knows it's the same way I've talked to him for nearly thirty years now…"

"And it's worked quite well…"

"Only as well as your parenting techniques, Totsan!" Lupin said with a smile.

"Jeeze… I may not have been the best parent, but there're better ways to talk to someone who's borderline schizophrenic…"

"So! How's the baseball season in America, Dad?" Leo patted his father-in-law on the shoulder and smiled brightly.

"He's not schizophrenic, it's a mental breakdown… You oughta know about those, Zenigata, I gave you enough over the years!" Lupin continued with a chuckle as he worked his way onto the road now, which was not yet heavily packed with traffic.

"Yeah, but chasing you also kept me in shape, you little weasel… I probably still could chase you if I wanted to…"

"I still to this day think that you have a thing for me, Zenigata…"

"Ugh… I couldn't think of anything worse except maybe traffic duty…"

"You say so, but your heart feels differently, I just know it, Pops… Don't think I haven't seen those sly little looks out the side of my eye."

"Are you coming on to me?! It wouldn't surprise me, quite honestly!"

"Hey, your son came onto mine."

"But yours is the one who went along with it!"

"I'm right here!" Leo finally growled, and both turned about at that moment, stunned at his tone. Lupin and Zenigata looked ahead, Zenigata clearing his throat and Lupin tapping his hand upon the wheel.

"…You, um… How're your hands?" Lupin inquired, glancing back to his son in the review.

"They hurt. Horribly," Leo replied bluntly.

Zenigata gave Lupin another tired, disgusted look, and the thief merely shrugged. "Where's Toshiro and Jigen's oldest? The hotheaded one?"

"Toshiro and Yuki are staying with Saiyuri tonight," Leo answered, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "There's a slim chance that they might still come, but they're more interested right now in trying to learn to get along again…"

"So you think there's a chance for them yet?"

"I'd be shocked if I didn't come home to see a line of clothes leading to the bedroom… They've been doing nothing but making puppy dog eyes and flirting all night…"

"Jealous, are we?"

"I always thought that if I went on a lost weekend of my own I'd have a lot more fun…"

"Heh, you're on yours because you fooled around with a secretary, Lennon took his with him when he went on his," Lupin mused, and Zenigata leaned over and elbowed his forced relative—_Hard._

"Well, they won't be the only no so," Zenigata murmured after regaining his posture. "Ryoko is still at the hospital with her husband… Your cousin, or whatever the hell he is…"

"She refused to come with us," Lupin sighed and shrugged. "She's still heartbroken, poor thing…"

"Well, maybe I could visit," Leo brushed back his nearly-cut hair and smiled. "She… I'd probably be more wanted there than in a lot of other places…."

"Nah, the kids will love seeing you again," Lupin smiled widely at his son, and Leo returned this, but with unsure eyes.

The hospital room of Victor Lupin:

Ryo looked up from her play briefly to see if anything or anyone had stirred within the room, and unsurprisingly, it hadn't. The small Christmas tree remained lit, the machines Victor was hooked up to remained beeping, and Victor remained still on his hospital bed, his eyes shut. She sighed and set aside the book, reaching for the remote and switching on the channel. _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer_. _It's a Wonderful Life_. _A Charlie Brown Christmas_.

After sighing and deciding to keep it on _A Charlie Brown Christmas_, she sat back in her seat and took hold of his hand, "I never figured our first Christmas together would be like this, Vic…. I was thinking more along the lines of maybe dinner on a cruise ship, dancing in Milan, or maybe even deciding what to paint the room…" she slowly took his hand and moved it down to her stomach, and shut her eyes lightly. "We need you right now… I can't do this right now on my own, Victor. I… I love you, and I don't want to do this alone…"

"Excuse me, Miss?" a white-haired woman peeked into the hospital room, and Ryo jutted to attention.

"I've told you already, I'm not leaving, I don't care if visiting hours are over," Ryo snapped.

"Oh, no… I'm nothing like that…" she smiled good-naturedly and waved a hand. "I was wondering if I could join you… You both look lonesome…"

"He's never been much of a talker," Ryo sat up in her seat and placed his hand back on the bed. "It's just been getting worse, recently…"

"He must have beautiful eyes… I've always liked blue-eyed men," the old woman chuckled and pulled up a seat beside Ryo, and then glanced to the television.

"How'd you know he has blue eyes?" Ryo wondered aloud.

"Mm, don't miss much now, do you? Well, I glanced at his chart… He looks like a friend of a gentleman I once met… Very… Very troubled man…" she muttered as she looked Victor over. "How long have you been together now?"

"About two years…. I was engaged to his cousin at one point… We were almost married…" she shook her head and chuckled. "Then I met Victor, hated Victor, then learned to love him..."

"Sounds like he's a good man…"

"He's difficult, but… I'm sorry, I must be boring the hell out of you…" she shook her head and brushed back some of her hair.

"You know, I know a few little parlor tricks… Maybe one of those could get your mind off of this… This has to be a terrible time for you," the old woman smiled and leaned forward, and Ryo chuckled.

"Let me guess, you're a Christmas angel or something, right?"

"Not quite… Here, I do a… A bit of palm reading… Do you use your left or right hand?"

"Right…" Ryo answered, holding out her hand to the woman.

"My, quite a few winds under your belt, mm?" the woman chuckled as she looked over the bracelets and then looked upward at Ryo. "Well, well… What do I see here? Long life, and…. Hrm…."

"You'll be a great teacher…."

"Teach? Me… Hehe… Yeah, I can barely teach my sister how to drive…"

"I see… Well, paths often lead us in unseen directions…. Well, I best be off… I don't want to disturb you…"

"Wait, no, I—" but the old woman merely closed Ryo's hand, gave a knowing smile, and backed out of the room. It was about then that Ryo heard a coughing noise, and darted her head about to see a rustling on the bed.

The Lupin-Zenigata residence:

"Hey, Dad, I've got a question when you get time in between making yourself pretty for Papa," Dako said from the doorway of the busy home as Max adjusted his tie in front of the dresser.

"Who said I was doing anything special for him?" Max inquired, glancing at her image in the mirror while not ceasing his attempts at making his tie look just right for Leo.

"You actually brushed your hair with a hairbrush, and not your fingers," Dako replied with a raised eyebrow as she approached him and began to help him with his tie. "I just had a few questions, I guess…"

"Sure, I… These aren't like, relationship questions, are they?" he asked with a small shake in his voice.

"No, not this time, although I've got a couple of those, too…"

"Well, go for it, then…"

"What's it take to be a cop?"

"Lack of common sense and disregard for your own sense of being…"

"No, like, seriously," Dako answered as she finished his tie and stood back.

Max sighed and looked to the floor a moment, and then upward to her, "I'm not sure, but whatever it is, I guess I was kind of born with it. Being a cop is about the only thing I've been good at in my life."

"You're a good cook," Dako shrugged.

"Yeah, but… Ugh, why don't you take a seat? We'll let the peanut gallery chatter for a while," he muttered as he shut the door and seated himself on the bed. "I… I became a cop for a lot of the wrong reasons."

"You wanted to meet guys?"

"Erm, well…That was part, but… I also just wanted to make my dad happy. I did a lot of things in life that made my parents happier than it made me… Like that nightmare known as accounting school," Max grumbled, and shook this off as he saw Dako's puzzled expression. "Point is, if you wanna be a cop, kid, do it for yourself, and not for me and Leo."

"What if I wanted to be a thief?"

"Then don't expect me to post your bail," Max answered flatly, then sighed and placed an arm around her shoulders. "But… I won't abandon you or call you a freak or anything either. I won't turn you away for being who you are, neither me nor your Pop… Even if he and I do go our separate ways…"

"So… You guys are gonna get a divorce?"

Max sighed and dropped his head, "A lot of big people stuff happened, and… Stuff that's hard to forgive… It's just been a hard year, Dako…"

"Yeah, Jared's really upset… Are… Am I going to stay with you or Pop?"

"We haven't thought about that, okay?" Max snapped, and then sighed and pulled her closer as he watched her surprised expression. "Listen, I…. I don't know. He's sick right now, and…"

"I miss him, too… He's coming tonight, right?"

"Yeah, heh. Don't know what possessed me…"

"Because you love him, too…"

"Hell, worked hard enough for him… You'll understand that in a few years…'

"Who says I don't now?"

"Please don't start dating yet," Max moaned, gripping his head with his hands, and Dako gave a chuckle right before there was a knock on the door.

"Max… Leo's here," Natasha called from outside. Max sighed, and turned to his daughter.

"Don't tell anyone I've got a mushy side, all right? It'll totally ruin my image if you do…"

"Someone think you're effeminate? Heh, I couldn't imagine, Dad…"

"Smartass…. Get the hell outta my room before I switch back o being the bad-cop parent…"

"You got it," she chuckled, and headed out, Max trudging from behind, not even noticing as he looked downward that there was someone walking hurriedly in the opposite direction.

"Crap, watch it!" Max snapped after he made impact with the other man, and then looked upward with shock as he realized it was Leo. "I…. You….?"

"Hi… I was just coming up to see you," Leo said with a mutter, staring down at his shoes and clearing his throat.

"I'm on my way down," Max replied coldly, brushing past Leo. "Now if you excuse me, I've got a ham to carve…."

"…You're Jewish…"

"There's nothing in the Torah that says I can't cut the damn thing," Max grumbled.

"I…. I wanted to talk…."

"Nothing to say…" Max turned around to look back at Leo, and was quite surprised when he saw Leo's hair was now much shorter than he had seen before. "What the heck finally convinced you to get rid of that stupid haircut? You just break up with someone or something?""

"I… Yeah, but I'm hoping that it's not too late to stay in another relationship…. One I was too stupid to realize was so good until I went and screwed it up…"

"Yeah, well, that's your issue…"

"Max! Could you stay and listen for five minutes, please? I…. I know I don't deserve it, but could you consider it? It…. 'Tis the season…"

Max sighed and rubbed his forehead; he knew that he shouldn't, but Leo looked extremely pathetic at the moment; as pathetic as he had been when Max had met him.

"Let's go in the room, then…. They're listening downstairs to every word we're saying…."

"How in the hell'd he know?" Lupin the Third whispered from downstairs. He and his wife stood guard from against the staircase, out of sight, but as soon as this was said Fujiko sighed and stepped away from the wall, dragging her husband along with her.

"Come on, I'll milk it out of him later," she whispered, then quietly pulled him away to join her at the party that was meeting all through the living room and patio out back.

Max hobbled into the bedroom, seating himself, and then watching Leo as Lupin took a seat across from him on the vanity chair.

"Okay, go for it," Max said with a skeptic, tired sigh while setting aside his crutch and rubbing his elbow.

"I… God, this was a lot easier when I practiced in front of the mirror….I…. I messed up really, really bad… And I miss you… And the kids…. Listen, when I met you, I could barely take care of myself. I guess I was so used to you taking care of me, I wasn't ready for it when it was up to me to take care of you… I miss you, Max, I… I miss you, and the kids, and… I miss you yelling at me and calling me an idiot! I miss you losing your temper, and I miss it when you're in your goods moods, and…"

"You're gonna make me puke if you don't stop," Max muttered, glancing away and trying to hide the fact that his face had reddened a bit while Leo spoke. "I…. I was a pain in the ass, I know. I didn't mean it, but still… That was still too far…."

"I know… Can you forgive me for it?"

"I… I don't think so…" Max said with a shake of the head, rising and heading back out into the hallway.

Leo paused for a few moments in thought, assessing what he could possibly do next. There weren't many options left for him, and only about one thing flashed through his mind. He wasn't sure if it would work, but it was the only thing he could think of—Stupid as it might make him seem.

"Max!" Leo shouted, running to the doorway and watching as Max turned around and merely glared at him with tired expectancy.

"…What…?"

"I…. I…. I love you baby, and if it's quite all right, I need you, baby…" Leo sang in a shaking tone.

Lupin, along with the rest of the Christmas party, had fallen silent, and both he and Zenigata, who were standing by the punchbowl, nearly dropped their drinks as they recognized the voice.

"Hehe…. Well, at least a majority of your others don't do karaoke… Damn this is some good booze… Have to get the recipe," Jigen muttered as he passed the two stunned men. "Shoulda signed your kids up for more sports…."

Leo had sung a few more lyrics before stopping and watching as Max's expression changed from one of great annoyance, to something much softer. He even broke into a chuckle, and shook his head as he then began to laugh loudly.

"….What in the hell was up with that?!"

"It… It was the only song I could think of…" Leo admitted with embarrassment, rubbing his shoulder and looking to the nearby wall. Max hobbled over toward him, taking hold of his chin and then moving it to face him.

"That was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever seen," Max said with a chuckle. "But, it was also one of the sweetest… I…. I think maybe this'll work if we take it one step at a time."

"You doing anything Sunday night?"

"Eh, yeah, got a date, heh…" Leo replied with a shrug.

"Um, with who?"

"Some real hothead… Blond guy, kinda short…"

"Oh, crap, you're dating Jake Busey…"

"I…"

"Don't worry, I got it," Max laughed, and placed a hand upon Leo's shoulder. "Now we've got a party to get down to, so what do you say to….?"

"Let's get down so everyone can start the party and stop listening to us…"

"Somehow, I have the feeling they were having more fun doing that."

Toshiro's cottage:

"And that's the last of it," Toshiro set the last package underneath the tree and smiled, standing back and looking down at his handiwork.

"Heh, so you say…" Yukiko tossed aside her wrench and then tugged on the handlebars of the small yellow bike, only then stopping to look at the color and then shaking her head. "You're starting them early…."

"Mm… Well, I have to keep her entertained… She gets her attention span from you, you know…."

"What, she's getting bored?"

"Heh, _a lot_. I wish I could keep her company all of the time, but I just can't…. And being single now, a guy's got needs sometimes…"

"Ugh, I don't wanna know," Yukiko shuddered, and held up her hands signaling for him to stop right then and there.

"I just…. I don't think I'm giving everything I can to her…"

"You're trying to kiss my ass for something, I'm just not sure what, yet…"

"I… I'll beg you for it more later… After I've been drinking…" he answered with a sigh, and moved out of the way to allow her to move the bike under the tree.

Yukiko smiled and folded her arms. "You oughta be happier this time of year… Hell, it's a few weeks before Elvis' birthday…"

"I know, I am…. I'm just glad I get to spend it with both of you, more than anything," he answered, taking a step toward her and pausing, and then sighing in relief as she took the initiative and embraced him.

"Yeah…. It's kinda nice…"

"No lie, those glasses make you look hot…"

"Keep your hand above the border, i.e., my belt, or you'll be wearing that bike…"

"Yes, ma'am," Toshiro cleared his throat and immediately did so, causing Yukiko to give a laugh.

The hospital:

"Crap, I'm sorry…." Ryo yelped as she climbed off of Victor and adjusted her sweater. He had gone into a coughing fit from the sudden awakening, and gave a grunt as she climbed off of the bed and retrieved a towel, which she ran under the bathroom's faucet and then headed back to Victor, wiping his forehead. "I… I can't believe you're awake!"

"What…. What day is it…?" he asked shakily.

"Um…. Christmas, now…."

"How cliché…" he mumbled, turning his head to a side.

"I'm going to get the nurses," she said with a rush of excitement, heading to the door and calling for the doctor, and then running back to Victor, who remained looking about tiredly on the bed.

"How long was I out?"

"A few weeks, but it felt like months," answered Ryo, grasping onto his hand while her body shook.

"Ryoko, calm down…." he sighed as he saw how nervous she appeared. "I'll be fine…"

"Heh, you shouldn't be the one comforting me," she sniffed.

"Mm, comes with the territory," replied Victor with a slight shrug. He gave an audible groan as several doctors rushed in, and looked over the doctors boredly. "Whatever you egghead bastards have to do to get me out of here, just go ahead and get it done with. I want to get home to the bastards I _know_ I hate."

"He…. That's his way of saying 'thank you'," Ryo said with slight embarrassment as well as a chuckle.

"No it wasn't," Victor answered bluntly as the doctor headed to him with a large needle. Victor eyed this, and looked up at the doctor with tired annoyance. "If that goes anywhere near my ass I'll jam it down your throat…"

"Is he usually this…. Urm, vocal?" a nurse standing beside Ryo asked in a whisper.

"GODDAMN IT!" Victor shrieked as the needle was injected into him.

"Um, he's just cranky," Ryo said with a sigh. "He was never really a morning, afternoon, or night person…"

"Give me that needle!" Victor growled, reaching over for the syringe.

"Let's get him some restraints," one doctor said to the other, who merely nodded and headed out of the room to fetch some wrist and leg restraints for the unruly patient.

The Lupin-Zenigata household:

"Okay, let's just set her in here…." Heiji said as he opened the darkened door of the bedroom, allowing Fuji in with Hikari in her arms. Dai was already fast asleep in Avery's old crib, and Fuji gently placed her daughter on the mattress then looked down at the baby.

"Heh, she looks a lot like you…" Heiji said with a smile as he leaned on the railing of the crib. "Fuji, is… Is she mine?"

"Heh, I knew you'd be asking that some time…. You've got a right to know, huh?" Fuji sighed as she too placed a hand upon the edge of the crib. "She's not…."

Heiji nodded, and there was a pause between the two, Fuji looking him over and wondering exactly what was on his mind as she did so.

"You mad at me?" she asked.

"Nah…. But, can she be?" Heiji asked quietly, much to her surprise. "Being a master thief and a single mom can't be all that easy…"

"I… You really wanna do that for me?"

"Yeah. She's a cute baby, whoever her dad may be—Fortunately she doesn't look a damn thing like him."

"Mm…. You sure you want to…?"

"Hey, how couldn't I? She's got a hot mom," Heiji laughed, and laid a hand on hers gently. Fuji smiled at his nervousness, and leaned against him. This surprised Heiji, and she gave a laugh.

"How about we let her sleep? Besides, my dad and Zenigata are arguing again, and I freakin' love to watch…. Hehe…. Double entangre…"

"I feel like I should stick around with you two for fear that your daughter would turn out just like you, Fuji," said Heiji plainly.

"What? You like me, and I like me…"

"I know you like you…" he sighed, and the two left with this said, Fuji quietly closing the guest door behind them as they ventured back to the family reunion.

Hikari was not ready to sleep, though. She could almost feel the presence in the room, the one besides her and Dai. The much larger presence. She didn't cry as out of the shadows stepped a lanky figure, who candidly headed toward the crib and looked down at the two infants. He looked over the Jigen boy with mild interest, and then looked over to Hikari, who kicked her feet and gave a laugh.

A calloused hand reached out slowly, allowing her to grip onto one of his fingers with her tiny hand. A smile drew across his lips, and he gave a chuckle, "You're beautiful…"

"I'm just saying, I'm not ready to exactly quit working yet," the tall man's head jolted to the door as he heard two voices, one distinctly male and American, followed by a stern Japanese woman's voice.

"Well, I'm not exactly ready to, either," Odori sighed. "I'm still young, there's plenty of time for kids…"

"Yeah, maybe I could let them play with my dentures when they're older," Jordan mumbled as he opened the door with his free hand while his other balanced a fast asleep Namiko. Odori walked over to the guest bed, and straightened out the sheets and fluffed a pillow for the young girl.

"You are not as old as you say…"

"….I…. Jesus, I'm my father… I'm getting into an argument at Christmas."

"Except you're not inebriated," Odori countered, stepping aside as Jordan tucked in Namiko. "Hey, what is it?" he asked as he noticed Odori now stood with her sword drawn, and tensed in a battle stance.

"I…. I just thought I heard something…."Odori cleared her throat, and placed her sword back in its wooden sheath.

"Could've been a cat…. Crap, I think Leo's up to five now he has almost as many cats as kids…" Jordan mumbled, and kissed her on the forehead, while Odori did similar and then righted herself, and headed out of bedroom. Odori looked once more at her daughter, and then quickly scanned the room, and closed the door. Even though a highly trained samurai, and Jordan an experienced thief, neither had noticed the slightly opened window.

"I'll be back for you soon," came a quiet voice from outside the window, and then there was silence.


	8. Memphis, Tennessee

DISCLAIMER: Don't own it, never owned it, but always open to buying more swag of it. God bless E-bay.

Howdy there!

THANK YOU, LAZSLO. Sorry, hehehe, but I owe him BIG TIME for helping me with this arc. He may hate Lupin, but he can help me think of some pretty damned good heists : \ So special super thanks goes to him. Also, hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter, and hope that you go on to like this one even more. Well, enjoy, and as always, I would love your feedback, so, drop me a line, let me know how you're doing… Good, I hope? Good. Well, catch ya'll later! See ya!

PS: Not only did only part of the last chapter not load the first time, half of chapter four was also missing until I fixed it earlier in the week. So this chapter might make more sense if you went back and read the rest of the last one --'. My sincerest apologies.

Fun fact of Boredom: Toshiro is the only non-relative main male character Fuji's never had a relationship with and honestly I don't know why. Maybe she's not big on redheads…

Chapter Eight: Memphis, Tennessee

"You sure you'll be okay to?"

"Yeah…." Max nodded, and huffed. "You sure you wanna do this?"

"You bet," Leo nodded, and gave a nervous smile, and both pushed forward, opening the door to the office. All of Charley's things were gone. Leo had helped her pack the previous week. He had expected the meeting to be full of tears and yelling, but was almost worried at how easily the whole thing had gone. She had even said she'd hope that they'd still be friends. He had told her that after a small break, he would love to—After gently easing Max into the idea.

"We'll have to find a new secretary… No way I'm going to go through all of this paperwork," Leo muttered as his fingers graced the desk, and his head jolted upward at the sound of rustling from the storage closet. Out walked Dako with a box full of dusty paperwork, and Leo glared at Max's innocent expression.

"You hired our daughter," Leo said flatly, and Max scratched the back of his head and shifted the weight onto his crutch.

"She works for good pay…"

"Thirteen euros an hour," Dako replied as she opened the box and unloaded it. She opened one of the files, and her eyes traveled the paper. "Oh my gosh, Dad…. You're so much thinner in this mugshot of you and Pop from when you guys got busted in an airport!"

"That's because he had me so stressed I wasn't eating," Max hobbled over to her and snagged the folder from her. "It's just your job to go through and put these in a filing cabinet, not to read every single one."

"Well, I wanna know my workplace…"

"You can start by making us coffee," Max replied as he collapsed in the seat behind the mountain paperwork and old coffee cups that covered his entire desk. Leo walked over to his own neat and tidy, albeit slightly dusty desk, and pushed up his reading glasses as he looked over a screen on his computer. "Heh…."

"Heh? Like she's making a move, heh?" Max asked, spinning around and craning his neck over, trying to glimpse at his partner's computer screen.

"Well, a photo was stolen from the National Treasury last night… Their most requested photo, actually… And the negatives are all gone, too," Leo announced, scanning over the article.

"That, um, one of Roosevelt holding his dog up by the years?" Max inquired.

"The one of Richard Nixon meeting Elvis Presley," replied Leo with confusion. "Heh…"

"…You really think Fuji did that? Please…. She's gone nuts since that baby, if that's the case…"

"Well, a lot of money went missing after their anti-drug campaign," Dako added from her desk. "Like, ummmm…. Twenty million or something…"

"The interest from that money now, would… Crap, it'd be astronomical!" Leo said with a shake of the head.

"….I've got a mayonnaise jar full of quarters in the living room that I started to collect when I was eighteen…. How much would that be worth by now?" Max inquired, and then held up his hands in defense as he noted Leo and Dako's looks of horror at this. "What…? It's an honest question!"

"You need to put it in a bank, first," Dako sighed, then rubbed her forehead. "Pop, you sure you want him to have a baby with his DNA?"

"I'm hoping the stronger genes will prevail," muttered Leo, who stood. "We better get some tickets for Tennessee…"

"She's in Tennessee?"

"Yeah…. Why, are you not allowed there?"

"No, but all things considered, I'm not sure if I'm welcome…"

"Listen, I know you hate country, but I'm sure they'll overlook that one little thing and see that you're just a man trying to do his job," Leo smiled and minimized the screen on his computer, and then practically bounded over to Dako. "Okay, get me two tickets for Nashville tomorrow morning, check and see if my books came in, if Max's suit is back from the cleaners, and, oh yeah, schedule a babysitter for you, Jared, and Avery…."

"I'm on it," Dako saluted, then sat back in her seat with her feet upon the desk and the cordless phone in one hand.

"And if I catch you playing solitaire you're taking a pay cut," Max informed her as he rose and followed Leo to the door. "Where're we going?"

"I need to buy a few Elvis records," said Leo with a grin, and Max gave a moan.

"I listen to techno… This is like asking me to sit through _Brokeback_ _Mountain_ and trying not to laugh…." Max muttered as he followed Leo out of the office.

"Hey, Jared?" Dako asked from her side of the phone. "Hey. Dad and Pop are gonna be out of town tomorrow evening, so get the pizza coupons, and reroute the satellite so we get those cool sport channels for free, okay? Because I said so and I'm older, that's why! Ugh, bye…. Jeeze, what would they do without a girl in the family?"

Memphis:

"Heiji, quit it!" Yukiko snapped and batted Heiji's arm away as he tossed another tiny paper ball toward his brother, this one joining the small pile surrounding the stunned samurai.

"What? This is fun… Plus he's been like this for nearly an hour…. And here I thought nothing could beat the entertainment value of _Kingdom Hearts 2_."

"Yeah, well, you go play with your Mickey Mouse, I'm gonna try to get him away from that damn picture," Yukiko said as she rose and walked across the library room, glancing down at the samurai who sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the picture before him.

"Take off your shirt…" Heiji called, then shrugged. "Not like I'm wanting to see it personally, I'm just trying to see if it'll break him out of his trance…"

"I'm about ready to…." Yukiko muttered. "Hey, Toshiro…. Toshiro? I'm gonna go lay out on your hotel bed in one of your kimonos with a smile on my face… Okay…. There's gonna be a lot of booze and I'm going to be getting a babysitter for Saiyuri… I'll get candles, and maybe nice music and Goddamnit would you look up at me for two seconds!?"

"Heh, I don't know if that's gonna be happening, Yukiko-chan…. If there was one person Toshiro-chan would pass you over for, it'd be Elvis…"

"I just can't believe these are the real negatives… And the real picture…." Toshiro mumbled, shaking his head in disbelief, and finally sitting back on the carpet. "I wish I…. Jeeze, I wish I could've gone and stolen these guys with Dori and Jordan!"

"I don't think you'd want that," Fuji said with a shake of the head, and as if on cue came the sound of bickering from down the hall, followed by a strain of Korean phrases all aimed to Jordan, and all laced with curse words. There was then the sound of a door slamming, and a growl of frustration from Jordan.

"This is just like when I put those two Beta fish in a bowl," Fuji muttered with tired sigh.

"Why in the hell did you do that?" Heiji's eyes traveled up from the computer screen to his current girlfriend.

"I wanted to see if they really fought one another. What can I say, I'm curious to a fault!" Fuji shrugged, and clapped her hands together. "Well, I say after Ryo-san flies in we make our next attack…"

"Why do we have to wait for Ryo to come back?" Yukiko asked as she once again glanced over Toshiro's shoulder to the photos.

"She knows the locale best, plus I need my very best getaway driver," Fuji answered. "Without her, we don't go on…"

"Well, better get used to Opry music then," Yukiko tilted up her fedora and looked back to her boss. "From what I hear Victor's not taking it well…"

Paris:

"Mom, it's friggin' adorable… He's been pouting all morning…" Ryo whispered on the phone to her mother, then flinched, and slapped her forehead. "Wait--Don't tell me I just said…"

"Yup. Friggin'," Ming sighed. "You think he'll be okay on his own?"

"I'm getting someone to watch over him while I'm gone," Ryo continued as she searched through the medicine cabinet, pulling out what she needed and tossing it into her bad.

"You hired a babysitter for your husband?"

"….Um, I guess if you put it that way….."

"That's ingenious," Ming gasped, then laughed. "I should try that with your father!"

"He'd probably mistake them for a lamp and shoot them on accident…"

"I still have the bullet hole in that lampshade," Ming grumbled. "Well, if you need anything, you know where we'll both be…. I've got to get the girls ready for school…. They're psyched because they're going to a museum or some crap, I don't know… Hey, Ryoko, your dad and I wanted to ask you if in the summer if you and Vic get the chance to come over for a few weeks, your dad would like you to get the girls comfortable around guns…. We'd ask Yuki, but from what I understand she and Toshiro are a lit-tle busy as is…"

"You want me to teach them?" her blood nearly froze as she concluded this, and Ming was quick to add onto this offer as she heard her daughter's nervous tone.

"Well, if you don't want to, that's all right, we just thought with you not having kids and also being of fairly sane mind you might consider it…"

"I'd love to. Let me let you go, Mom… I can feel someone staring at me…" she chuckled, and added. "Tell Dad I love him…"

"Can do," Ming replied, and both women hung up their ends of the line, and Ryo spun about in the computer chair of the den, and saw Victor standing in the doorway in his gray pajamas and his navy blue terrycloth bathrobe. The bathrobe was untied in the front, and Victor's hair was free of the gel he usually put in it, and therefore her looked like a disheveled mess.

"…You're really leaving?" he murmured tiredly.

"You shouldn't even be out of bed," Ryo sighed and rose, then carefully led him to their bedroom. "Come on, now… Emily will be here soon, and she'll take care of you while I'm gone…."

"Wait—Emily?" Victor paused, and then gave a groan and a shake of the head. "No. Not her. I'll be fine on my own."

"The doctor said not to leave you alone…"

"Then stay here!"

"The same doctor told me not to let Fuji alone, either," Ryo kissed him on the cheek and then let go of his hand as he heard the doorbell. "That's her. Be right back!"

"You're leaving me with a harpy," Victor muttered, seating himself upon his bed and watching as Emily walked into the room, giving a smile as she made eye contact and then looking away and back to Ryo before she could see the glare he returned.

"Now here's the chart for the medicine he's supposed to be taking… I don't care if you have to tackle him, make him take it," Ryo held a chart up to Emily, who scanned over it and nodded occasionally. "If you guys have any problems, just call."

"We will," Emily smiled well-meaningly to Ryo, and Victor grumbled to himself and rolled over in his bed.

"Don't worry," Ryo sighed and leaned down and gently kissed him. "I'll make it up to you when I get home. We'll go to a nice dinner, dancing… Whatever you want…"

"Mm… Shooting practice… And using that whore as a practice shot…" Victor mumbled, turning over in bed and sighing while Ryo laughed and reached over, kissing him and then standing and lifting up her suitcase. "Take came of him…" she said with a hopeful smile in Emily's direction, and the doctor nodded, and remained with the serene expression upon her face until Ryo had shut the door. It turned to a tired frown of indifference as she sauntered over to Victor's dresser and began to straighten the area while he looked on with a similar tiresome look upon her face.

"My hatred for you is still immense, you realize," Victor said, breaking their silence.

"What's that, Victor? Your appendix is hurting? Well, I could take care of that. The ambulance drivers will believe me over you—I'm a doctor, you're crazy, and a convict…"

"Ex-convict, as far at the official documents are concerned," Victor grumbled, then sat up in his bed. "Now leave me. I'm going to read."

"What in the hell are you going to do in nine months, Victor?" Emily shook her head, then immediately cringed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Victor inquired with a raised eyebrow. "You aren't moving in, are you? I heard of single relatives moving in to married couples' homes and burdening them…."

"Ugh…. I hope all it get is your eyes…" she said beneath her breath.

"What in the hell are you not letting me in on?... Or would that be breaking your Hippocratic oath?" a smile came across Victor's lips. "You did already, didn't you?"

"I'm going to make you some soup, and possibly put arsenic in it, Victor. So you just hang tight," Emily snapped, exiting the bedroom and removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes as she entered the kitchen. "What she sees in him, I'll never know…"

"…Perhaps I should see how she's doing…" Victor mumbled, then reached over and grabbed onto the phone.

"And don't go touching the phone! She doesn't need anyone bugging her in the middle of a heist! If she wants to talk to you, she'll call you," Emily called from the kitchen, and Victor slumped over his pillows, and gave a groan.

"No wonder she's single…"

Tennessee:

"Hey. Whose puppet?" Fuji inquired as she unzipped the suitcase which she had assumed was holding their weaponry, but instead held a puppet, staring blankly upward to her as she looked it over.

"Puppet?" Ally muttered, briefly discontinuing bouncing his son on his knees and giving an equal parts surprised and concerned look, which did not go unnoticed by Carmen.

"Is something wrong?" she whispered, and Ally smiled nervously, and shook his head.

"Nah, I'm fine," Ally answered, and lifted up his son as he rose, carrying the baby clad in the tiny Blackhawks jersey as he headed out of the room.

"Anyone seen my puppet?" Toshiro inquired as he walked into the room, having only broken his trance as Heiji took the photos to examine them.

"That's _yours_?" Ally's voice cracked as he asked this, and Toshiro studied his friend's features curiously.

"You and Yuki-chan are into some weirddddd stuff, Toshiro-chan," Fuji said with a sly smile as she pulled the puppet out of its case.

"It…. It's for a play I'm doing…. I'm a gay puppet," Toshiro explained with a sigh as he took the puppet from Fuji and Carmen simultaneously took baby Dai from his spooked father.

"See? I don't even have to really stop from moving my lips!" Toshiro said happily as he placed the puppet over his hand, and moved it over to Fuji, who laughed, and then over to Dai and Carmen.

The baby enjoyed the puppet's presence, laughing and gripping onto its nose, and then Toshiro made his way to Ally. And moments later Toshiro and his puppet hit the floor after Ally automatically delivered a blow to the unsuspecting samurai's face.

"Hey Toshiro? I—Oh my GOD!" Yukiko yelped as she walked in and came upon the sight of her daughter's father lying there in a small pool of blood, originating from his lip and nose mainly.

It was Ally and Toshiro who sat in the kitchen later on, Ally sipping a cup of coffee while Toshiro sat with his back against the chair, looking up at the ceiling and hoping that the bleeding would stop soon.

"I should've told you puppets freak me out," Ally muttered, finishing off his cup and setting it down on the table.

"It's okay… It's not really something that comes up," Toshiro answered, dabbing his nose lightly with a tissue and cursing in his mind as he saw there was still fresh blood.

"Yeah… My dad took me to a puppet show when I was a kid, and…. I got scared and threw up on him," Ally sighed. "Then the kid next to me threw up on his mom, and… We didn't go a lot outside of throwing a baseball back and forth for a while… But then again his depth perception was never great, so after I hit him in the throat with it, we had to start going out again… Never to another puppet show, though…"

"….Al, if you're lonely, I'll find you a friend," Toshiro said after a pause.

"You never threw up on your dad?"

"No!" Toshiro answered with a yelp of disgust, jerking his head back to its normal position to look over Ally.

"Well, you must've done something just as bad to him…"

"Mm… One summer while I was over, he caught me reading…"

"And? I knew you were country, but Goemon never let you read?"

"It's _what_ I was reading," Toshiro answered slowly and Ally gave a chuckle.

"You actually read the articles?" Ally gave a knowing smile, and Toshiro returned with his own.

"Yeah, you probably lifted stuff from your dad's store, though. I had to talk Julia into getting it for me."

"Of course I did. What in the hell was he gonna tell me—Stealing's wrong?" Ally snorted, and both laughed at this.

"You two are bonding, and Toshiro's bleeding like a bitch… Well, I like half of what I see," Heiji had walked into the kitchen, and was looking through the refrigerator for any possible foods that could combine to make a halfway decent lunch while he worked.

"Hey, Hiro, why aren't you saving the cheerleader?" Toshiro returned, and Heiji merely glared at him.

"Ho-ly crap he does look like Hiro!" Ally laughed, and Heiji pulled out a bottle of juice, and switched his icy look over to Ally. "You ever get mistaken for him?"

"…Twice…" Heiji mumbled, and trudged out of the kitchen, leaving the two men laughing. "Screw both of you guys!"

"So you think you'll be okay if I go and put my puppet away now?" Toshiro looked Ally over with worry, and Ally gave a nod and stood, setting his cup in the sink.

"Yeah… Ya know, if it's one thing, I hope my kid doesn't get my friggin' paranoia…"

"Everyone hopes that, Ally," Toshiro stood, and Ally looked over his shoulder and heaved a sigh.

"Jeezeeee…" he grumbled as he watched the scene unfolding before him. Fuji and Carmen, with Fuji reluctantly hand off her daughter to the future ruler of Cagliostro.

"Fuji… She'll be fine," Carmen smiled reassuringly as she took the small infant from Fuji's arms. "I'll take good care of her while you're at work."

"Mm… I just… You sure?"

"I'm sure," Carmen nodded, and laughed lightly as the baby giggled. Fuji smiled at this as well, but it was a tense smile, and she turned her attention to the men in the kitchen, heading over to them and placing a hand on Ally's shoulder.

"How's the war wound, solider?"

"Been better, general," Ally caught out of the corner of his eye the critical glance as she noted the hand on his shoulder, but pretended not to catch sight of this glare.

"Hey, I'm the one who got socked in the nose!" Toshiro called back.

"Yeah, but Al had to go up against the puppet," Fuji winked and then bent down and whispered to Ally. "I need to know if you can run a job with me…"

"Hrm?" Ally looked above his heavy bangs and blinked, and Fuji merely tweaked a smile.

"Ummm what about—"

"You guys'll have your job, Toshiro-chan. Don't worry, you'll get paid," Fuji said with a reassuring laugh. "It'll just be easier to split up—It'll definitely keep Blondie and Bro busy. Ryo-san is in charge of team Beta, I'm in team Alpha with Ally-chan."

"Mm-hm… Who else is in team Alpha?" asked Toshiro, but before he could get a straight answer from Fuji, Yukiko called for him.

"Hey, where's Saiyuri's doll!?" she called gruffly.

Toshiro gave a sigh, and called back, "She said you had it!"

"I don't have the damn thing, Yukiko!"

"Why don't we head out while it's quiet? Your suit's in the Fiat," Fuji patted Ally on the shoulder, and Ally raised an eyebrow.

"My… Suit? Like a _suit_, suit?"

"No, like your hockey uniform," Fuji said sarcastically, and smacked him in the shoulder. "Of course!"

"Ugh…. Lemme go tell my _wife_ that I'm going out for the night," Ally grumbled, and started to rise.

"She knows—You're practicing for a game," Fuji answered, taking hold of his jacket and pulling him toward the front door of the hotel room. "That's why your hockey gear's in the car!"

"What? But you just said—"

"Allen," he heard behind him, and turned to see Carmen holding their son in her arms, and gave a weak smile. "Good luck at practice tonight."

"Heh, um… Thanks… Be home soon, love ya," Ally nodded, and then flinched as Fuji closed the door behind them. "If she goes to see me practice, do you know what trouble I'll be in?!"

"Mm… Yeah, but it'll be worth it," Fuji smiled, and pulled him toward the elevator. "We're going to get a piece of that wonderful little million-dollar puzzle."

"What exactly are we getting?"

"A gun," Fuji replied, opened the door, and both stepped in, and as the doors closed Fuji tossed down her backpack and pulled off her jacket, then hurriedly pulled out a long sequined dress from the bag.

"Woah, woah!" Ally slapped a hand over his eyes and spun around. "What in the hell happened to five-second warning?"

"Trust me, if it's one thing I'm good at doing quick, it's getting in and out of dresses," Fuji chuckled, then tapped him on the shoulder. "Okay, you can uncover your eyes… All of the danger's gone now, Ally-chan!"

"If I wasn't going to get my ass kicked before… They keep cameras in here! You know Heiji could've tapped into them!? Then he'd wanna kill me, too! How dead do you want me, Fuji?" he turned around, and sputtered at the sight before him. Fuji chuckled, and continued to put on her dangling red earrings as Ally remained silent.

"Ally… Relax," she patted him on the shoulder and smiled. "You're not going to be in trouble. This is just business. I just lied because I didn't want Carmen to give me another black eye."

"And if the catches us?" Ally continued as the door opened and both hurried out of the lobby and into the parking lot.

"We're screwed," Fuji hopped into the blue Fiat and Ally paused, looking it over for a few moments.

"…Is this new?"

"Eh, lifted," she shrugged and turned on the engine, then called. "C'mon, your suit's in the back seat."

Ally grumbled and climbed into the back seat, reaching forward and turning the rearview mirror upward and then sitting back and pulling out the tuxedo and shaking his head. "It's tailored…"

"…And quoting _Casino Royale _would be ultra-tempting about now," Fuji laughed lightly, and while he was placing his attention on unbuttoning the shirt, she righted the rearview mirror, occasionally glancing as they headed to their destination. Ally was adjusting his bowtie, and then gaped as he first noticed the mirror, and then the large white structure whose iron gates they were passing through.

"This is Graceland… Fuji, this is a Toshiro project," Ally sat back in his seat and pulled out a stick of gum from the pocket of the discarded pants on the floor of the Fiat. "What're we here for, anyway?"

"A gun," Fuji answered with a smile of determination. "And the others are off getting the ring."

"The gun, the ring? And what's team 'C' supposed to go grab, the wardrobe?"

"Aw, that reference barely fits, Ally-chan!" Fuji sighed and pulled up to the valet, then whispered. "Now grab my coat, and open the door for me."

"I don't usually make threats to women, but if you could read my mind right now, Fuji…"

"I'd know how bad you'd feel for holding up the valet," Fuji answered, nodding to the annoyed teenager. Ally climbed out of the back seat then walked around, opened the door for Fuji, and took the keys from her hand, tossing them to the annoyed valet.

"Here," Fuji sighed and stopped Ally, removing a small bottle of hairspray from her purse and leading to the side of the building.

"What're we doing, seeing if there're any lasers?" Ally whispered, looking about for any guards.

"Nope," Fuji pulled his bangs back and began to spray. "I'm not going into an Elvis-themed ball with a guy wearing a Beatle haircut."

"Ugh, Fuji!" Ally grumbled. "I—"

"You're all done," Fuji announced, and the two shared a silent moment before Ally cleared his throat and Fuji shoved a sheet of paper in his jacket pocket. "That's the plan. Go over to the punch bowl and read it when we get in."

"You know, a little pre-planning would never kill you… It worked for your dad," Ally muttered as they headed in.

"Ally-san, while that was a little mean, I'm willing to overlook it," Fuji said through a gritted, fake smile as they approached the door.

A plane over the Atlantic Ocean:

"What in the heck is that?" Max stretched over and glanced over Leo's laptop, briefly disregarding his own magazine in the process.

"Digital scrapbooking," Leo answered with a mutter as he placed another picture onto the page. "Figured it'd be easier than making individual ones for all the kids…"

"That and the feel of paste freaks you out," Max murmured while looked over the photographs. "Why's my mugshot in there?"

"Part of history," Leo replied as he made a few more clicks, and Max gave him a dull glare.

"Well, where's yours?"

"I'll get to it…."

"Liar," Max answered, leaning back in his seat. "What page are you working on?"

"Dako's first day of work…"

"You're definitely the woman in this relationship. Your father must cry nightly. Big, regretful tears that he never did enough manly things with you."

"Well, he had me try baseball with Ally and Al's dad once…"

"What happened with that?" Max inquired as he waved the flight attendant over.

Leo answered lightly, "Ally tossed the ball, and it hit Jigen right in the throat…. It was kinda cool, though… Jigen sounded like a frog the whole following week."

"You've got a sadistic streak, too, I've noticed."

"Hey, my mom as big a sadist, if not bigger, when it came to my dad."

"….Holy crap, you're Fujiko," Max said with wide eyed realization, and left Leo to puzzle this as he turned and ordered another vodka from the attendant.

"Excuse me?"

"You're Fujiko," Max continued with a wide smile, sipping a small taste of the vodka and shaking his head. "And your sister is Lupin…"

"She is not! I am not!" Leo bent inward to his partner and hissed. "I am _not_ becoming my mother!"

"Ohhh yeah you are," Max smiled and finished off his drink with a shudder, and Leo seethed a few moments quietly before snapping.

"How?"

"How what…?"

"How am I like my mother?"

"Well, for one, you both like guys."

"That doesn't count!" he snapped, and in the process drew the curious attention of the tourists sitting behind them.

"I dunno, I'd count it… You also run when there's too much danger."

"Like a sane individual!"

"No, like your mother. And you like playing with my emotions…"

Ouch. Leo outwardly shuddered at this, but Max paid it no attention, and Zenigata merely glanced to his watch, "How much longer for is this freakin' flight?"

"About an hour," Leo replied quietly, and eyed Max a moment. "Hey, do you still want.."

"—When'd you take that picture?" Max pointed to Leo's laptop, and Lupin sighed and glanced at the picture.

"What's it with you and all of the questions? I took it this morning… It's Dako's first day of… That's funny…"

"Like 'haha' funny?"

"No, like what's she doing with that funny," mumbled Leo as he glanced to her wrist and noted the bracelet dangling from it while in the photo she worked away at their filing. "…I think I need to make a phone call when we land…"

"Everything okay?"

"I want to say it is," answered Leo, continuing his work on his laptop while Max looked to him with mild concern.

Memphis:

"This feels wrong…" Ally grumbled as he automatically took Fuji's hands and scanned about the rest of the crowd for anything suspicious. "Where's that thing we need, anyway?"

"What're you so tense about, Ally-chan?" Fuji laughed and eyed the pistol from a display case across the room. "What's a friendly dance and a few friendly drinks between friends? It's mainly business, anyway."

"Things are rarely just friendly with you," Ally looked away, his eyes also meeting with the case. "That, or you're overly friendly…"

"Well, I always try to remain open."

"….You ready to take care of this?"

Fuji gave a smile, and saw from one of the large windows as a familiar red sports car slid into the parking lot, "You betcha…"

Washington, D.C.:

It had been two hours since Ally and Fuji had left the gang. In that time, the others, save for Carmen, who was at their main base with the children, had boarded a jet, headed for the U.S. capitol. Heiji worked his way up to the pilot's booth and gave an amused chuckle as they now passed over Maryland, "Thanks again for this…. I feel like you're my Moneypenny, most of the time…"

"When I met you I told you I'd either be your wife or your best friend," Veronica answered as she bent the nose downward slightly, indicating they were about to land on a hidden runway. "How are the others?"

"Well, my brother's pouting that he had to come here with us instead of Graceland, his wife's got the shakes…"

"Why's that?" Veronica tilted her head to face Heiji, and he merely gave a shrug as he took a seat in the copilot's chair.

"Some bad incident when she was little… Took a really bad fall from a stage catwalk or something…. She never really liked this kind of stuff afterward," Heiji shrugged and leaned forward. "And I think my sister's getting ready to kill her fiancé, or vice versa."

"Who is your money one?"

"Odori. Short people are usually more filled with rage," he answered, glancing over the gauges. "How's your husband doing?"

"Thinks I'm at a conference teaching some animators how to use a Boris Red program," she answered with a coy smile. "I haven't quite told him my unofficial group status with the Lupin gang."

"Well, he'd probably also freak out if he knew that you were still friends with someone who you were married to," Heiji smirked, and turned as he heard the arguing begin once more.

"How did all of their arguments begin, anyway? They seemed very much in love with one another…"

"Both want separate things… Dori's home is in Japan, and island boy over there fits into Japan like Windows on a MAC."

Veronica smiled, and glanced over to Heiji, "Or you in India…."

"We coulda moved to Germany," shrugged Heiji, and shuddered as both heard the bathroom door slam, followed by an exasperated sigh from Jordan.

"You could at least talk to me…" they heard Jordan mutter. "Damn it, Dori…."

"Makes me kinda glad I know Fuji's done with that stuff…" mumbled Heiji, and Veronica shook her head and chuckled.

Nashville:

The light were the first to go off. This was followed by the steady murmur of voices, and then the scream of several women. An alarm went off, but it was too late—The glass case had a clear cut in the center of it, and the gun had vanished.

"Hurry, Ally-chan!" Fuji shouted as she bolted down the hall, the gun snuggly in a back pack that had once been her purse and turned another corner with him. "We'll get out through the roof!"

"The roof?! Fuji, are you nuts?!"

"Just a little," she chuckled, then hopped up the stairs, looking back briefly as she heard an officer, and gulped as she saw they were wielding Tazers and clubs. "This is the opposite of good…"

Ally took hold of her hand before the officers could get a good look at either, and they merely saw a flash of red and black as they turned a corner into a bedroom, Fuji locking the door and Ally barricading it with a wooden chair.

"Double opposite of good!" Fuji yelped as she ran to the window and looked downward at the steep drop.

"What about your line? Where is it?"

"Well, I…."

"Open up!" one of the police officers shouted, pounding on the door.

"I… It was in my blue earrings…" Fuji began sheepishly.

"Andddd?"

"And I didn't have a pair in red!" Fuji moaned, and stomped her foot on the floor.

"You… You what?! Oi…" Ally slapped a hand over his eyes and shook his head. "What're we gonna do now?"

Fuji thought for a moment, surveyed Ally silently, and then grabbed him by the belt and flung him against the wall.

"OW! What the hell?!" Ally growled and looked downward at Fuji.

"This is gonna save our lives, okay?" she whispered, and the door gave another loud bang, and Ally nodded, and gulped.

When the guards entered, they found a Chinese man with his arms wrapped about another Asian woman, who wore a striking red dress, now disheveled from their activities. All of the officers stopped, and a few chuckled.

"What in the hell are you two doing here?!" growled the man in charge of the guards, and both Ally and Fuji gasped and turned about, facing the guards with stunned looks. "This is private property!"

"Um, sorry…" Ally muttered numbly, and shrugged. "You know how it is…"

"Yeah, you know how it is," Fuji chuckled, and adjusted her dress, purposefully calling the attention of the majority of the officers in the process.

"Get the hell downstairs!" he growled, and both nodded, Ally taking Fuji's hand and leading her out of the bedroom while there remained a red tint to his face.

"Wait," the officer stopped suddenly, and gripped onto the back of Fuji's backpack. "Let's see what's in here…."

Fuji looked to Ally, Ally looked to Fuji, and both nodded. Ally punched the officer in the jaw, in the process sending him flying back into a gaggle of the officers. Fuji also went into action, jabbing one of the men who grabbed at her and running down the hall, Ally following quickly behind. Jigen was nearly caught by a Tazer sent flying toward him, but missed it just in time to be pulled through a second-story window by Fuji. They had both expected a rough landing, so it came as a shock when they instead fell into the back seat of an Alfa Romeo.

"Ryo-san, you made it!" Fuji chuckled from atop Ally, who gave a grunt and wriggled up from beneath her. "I thought we were gonna be dorayaki for two seconds there!"

"Don't get your hopes up yet!" Ryo shouted as she zoomed out of the Graceland gates and cunningly dodged the officers on their bumper. "Fuji, you owe me a Dodge Viper… And someone remind me to pick up some soup for Victor… That was the agreement we had."

"Yeah…. We'll get you soup…." Ally muttered, looking out at the scenery as several of the cruisers fishtailed and crashed into one another, while Ryo gave a laugh.

"Jeeze, Ryo-san! You're in unusually high spirits…" Fuji said with a mildly shaking tone.

"Well, I've got a lot to smile about, Fuji," answered Ryo as Fuji crawled up to the front seat and sat by her partner.

"What, like you're pregnant?" Fuji said joking, then her smile faded as Ryo said nothing in response, but merely smiled.

"Wha… AHHHHHH!" Fuji shouted happily and hugged her about the neck, causing Ryo to swerve off the road and Ally to nearly fall out of the back seat.

"What the hell, Fuji?!" Ally shouted, then Fuji turned about and let go of her death grasp on Ryo, and switched to Ally.

Ryo rubbed her now-sore neck as she continued driving and Fuji held Ally in an embrace, and while Jigen-Lupin looked out the rearview she noted that the embrace seemed… _Off_, somehow. It was a tense, purposefully friendly embrace, and Ally wore an uneasy smile as Fuji did this. Fuji's expression had become slightly more serene, and they broke this gently, and Fuji sat back down, turning her attention back to Ryo. "I'm gonna be an aunt! I can't wait! Hey, maybe if you have a boy, they can get married!"

"That'd be incest, Fuji," answered Ryo plainly.

"Well, not with cousins, always," Fuji shrugged. "I mean, Goemon-san's family had enough over the years, I'm sure…"

"I get it," said Ally, "Toshiro's not tall because he's a freak, he's just inbred…. Heh…"

"Ugh, let's just get home… I could kill for some of Odori's cooking, strangely enough."

"Well, let's just hope she won't toss the pan at Jordan," mumbled Ally, sitting back against the seat and looking about nervously; more than the treasure, more than anything, he just wanted to go home to Carmen.

They arrived half an hour later, and the first unusual thing was the fact that the lights were on. Fuji noted this, and her smiling expression stiffened, and turned to the one she usually wore while at work, "You two, stay here…"

"Nah-ah, I'm goin' with you," Ally shook his head and hopped out of the back seat, still dressed in his suit.

"Ally-chan…." Fuji paused, and then sighed. "Fine… But Ryo-san, you definitely stay."

"You got it, Boss," Ryo nodded, and mock-saluted the gang leader while she and Ally entered the house, and found all of the lights on in the living room, but it was otherwise silent.

Fuji stepped into the household, and signs of a struggle were immediate. It was soon after that they heard a banging, and she rushed over to the broom closet and Saiyuri and Namiko hopped out, Saiyuri clutching onto baby Dai as the two took hold of Fuji's skirt and continued to wail.

"Shhh… Shhh… Honey, what's wrong? It's okay, sweetie," Fuji bent down and embraced the children, allowing them to cry into her. "Where's Hikari? Is she in there?"

"No," Saiyuri sniffed.

"Carmen tried to stop him!" Namiko added in a wail. "But… But…."

"CARMEN!" Ally shouted in a panicked tone Fuji had never heard come from him before. Fuji heard the voice come from upstairs, and instinctively turned to the little girls. "We're going into aunt Ryo's car, all right? Hold each other's hands while we go…"

"What about Hikari?" asked Saiyuri.

"Is Carmen okay?" Namiko added in a moan while Dai only wailed. Fuji didn't answer, but merely grabbed hold onto Namiko's hand while she took hold of Saiyuri's and the four exited out of the house. Ryo sat up in her car as she saw them exit, and the pale shade on Fuji's face let her know something was wrong.

"Ryo-san…" Fuji said calmly. "…Why don't you take them to the toy store, hrm? Buy them something nice, and I'll pay you back."

"Fuji, the toy stores are closed…" Ryo said unassuredly.

"Just take them somewhere," Fuji said with a near growl, and Ryo nodded, and reached over, opening her door and allowing the shaking children to slide in.

"I'll call you when it's all right to come back," Fuji looked upward at the house, and Ryo nodded, placing the car into gear and hurrying off while Fuji ran back into the house.

She then rushed into the house, and up the stairs, an ever-growing trail of blood guiding her way. When she reached the hallway, Ally sat on the ground, clutching onto a still-breathing but injured Carmen. Her white blouse and navy-colored skirt were both covered in blood, and this was beginning to transfer onto Ally's own suit and hands.

"Crap…She needs a doctor! And… I can't find Hikari, either!" Fuji stuttered, and Ally looked upward at her, as did Carmen.

"I… I'm sorry…" Carmen murmured, looking to Fuji tiredly.

"Sorry?" Fuji muttered and opened the bedroom door nearest to her, poking her head in and looking for her daughter but to no avail.

"I…. I man came… I tried to…." she mumbled, and gave a small moan, clutching on to her side.

"A man?" Fuji blinked, and swung open another door, this one once the children's room. Instead there was an opened window, and black soot encircling the window, "Mamoru…."

"What?" Ally shot his head up to Fuji, and she turned around, and looked down at the two.

"Mamoru… He came back for his daughter…"


	9. His New Flame

DISCLAIMER: Don't own it, but if it were to come up on E-bay, you can bet sure as hell it'd bid on it…

Howdy-ho!

You know, sometimes I'll do a dedication, and this one's no exception… This one's a little broader than the others in the past, though. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to all of the people I've met on here over the years through my writing. I love all of your all who support me, and make me smile, humor my sick sense of humor, and keep me working on not only this story, but my original ideas as well. You guys are great, most of you better than I could be. I might not own Lupin III, I might not get paid a lick to do this, but what I have gotten out of it is just about as good. Okay, enough with the Hallmark card stuff---Thanks as always for reviews, they're much appreciated!! Hope I can do even better in future chapters for all of you.

Fun Fact of Boredom: Mamoru's character came up basically because I needed a new villain. Still looking for more—And taking ideas! hint, hint

Chapter nine: His Latest Flame

Tennessee:

"She's still a little spooked…" Ally muttered as he stood in the hallway opposite of Fuji. "She wants me to stay with her… You okay?"

"I know he won't hurt her, but I'm wondering where he'd take her…" Fuji mumbled, her eyes not leaving the carpet as she spoke to Ally.

"Do we know it was him for sure?"

"The remnants of where there'd been a fire around the window is my only clue, Ally-chan, but I think it's a pretty damn good one."

"Fuji, I…"

"I wish it'd been you or Heiji," she muttered, looking to the side of the hall with the tall window. "….You guys, you… This would've been so much easier…"

"We'll get her back, Fuji," Ally placed a hand on her cheek and leaned forward, embracing her. "I've got to stay here and take care of Carmen…. She… I can't leave her."

"I know… You can't," she smiled and shook her head. "You've got a really good girl, you deserve her."

"No I don't. That's why I stay; I'm hoping she doesn't figure it out anytime soon," Ally shrugged, and Fuji smiled, and shook her head.

"…Heh, the one heart I never had the heart to steal," Fuji laughed, and patted him on the back. "Watch out if things don't work out with me and Heiji-chan!"

"Good luck getting through my wife," Ally returned this smile, and then gave a small sigh. "Usually when you're this happy it means you're gonna go kick ass."

"I'm gonna string him up like a Christmas ornament," Fuji replied with a wide smile, patting the leg where she kept her gun, and Ally shook his head.

"You be careful… Or at least wait for everyone to get back."

"This is my fight…"

"Nothing's just 'your' fight, Fuji. We're family. A screwy family who likes to make each others' lives a living hell, but we're family."

"Thanks, Ally-chan… But it's still just my fight," Fuji reached forward and kissed him gently, to which Ally gave a slightly embarrassed smirk, and she turned away from him, and headed down the hall. "I'm taking the gun with me… I think Elvis would've loved nothing more than shooting a J-pop musician… And Mamoru's got nothing on Robert Goulet."

"Jeeze, Fuji… Good luck getting yourself killed, ya idiot…" Ally scratched his head, and then turned his attention back to Carmen, who remained laying down in their bed.

"I love you, too, Ally-chan," Fuji said quietly, turning around and winking at him. Ally's head jerked back slightly, but this grew into a relaxed smile, and he nodded.

The home of Victor Lupin:

Victor sighed apathetically, took another spoonful of ice cream from the pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream, and flipped the channel. His stories were on.

"What in the heck are you doing now?" Emily raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the screen of the television from her own spot in the doorway of his room. "_The View_? Again?"

"I keep waiting to see if the biggest one devours the others… Three days, and nothing," he mumbled, setting aside the ice cream and reaching over the dresser for his newspaper and reading glasses. "I don't recall it being lunch time yet, so I'm curious as to why I'm being cursed with your presence at this hour."

"…How'd you end up with Ryo again?"

"Jealous? She's got a sister whom I'm almost sure is a lesbian… I could introduce you two," he said without looking up from the paper, although he regretted looking up once he did. Emily was staring back down at him, an angered expression all over her features. Not one to usually back down, Victor couldn't help but to fold his paper and slide down his seat a bit.

"I'm not gay…. What I am is related to you by blood, unfortunately. I'd probably take being gay over knowing that we share the same genetic makeup _any day_."

"Where're you off to now?" Victor inquired as she turned on her heel and headed out the door.

"To watch TV… And to make a list of why I shouldn't kill you…"

Victor paused for a moment, then shook his head and folded the paper out once more, "For someone who I doubt even has a uterus when she gets PMS it's every man for himself…" he muttered, pushing up his glasses and only looking up from his article when the phone rang. "The phone's ringing! …Emily? …Damn it, I could've hired better help than this…"

Victor reached over and decided to pick up for the number, although he didn't recognize it, "Allo?"

"…Crap…" was Leo's only answer from his end, and he immediately cleared his throat and nervously rambled off in Romanian.

"…I know it's you, don't take me for an idiot…. Your Romanian accent's awful," Victor snapped, removing his glasses, and switching the television to mute. "And the answer is yes, you really do sleep with a man, it's not a nightmare. How is your cripple doing, by the way?"

"…I was looking for Ryo…" Leo answered plainly.

"Ah… Well, she's off currently, playing cowboy with your twit sister. I'd ask if you wanted me to leave a message, but I'm not a secretary, so…"

"Do you know when I can try back?" Leo said in a near groan, and Victor was quick to respond.

"Whenever they get those damned things from Graceland…"

"Heh, I'm with you there… Beatles man, myself."

"And no one figured out you were gay because of why?"

"…Get better soon, Victor, but not too soon. And tell Ryo to call me if I don't arrest her, first."

"Can do…" Victor shifted a bit in his bed, and paused. "So…. How are things?"

"…Excuse me?"

"All I've had to talk to for the past three days is this harpy."

"I get it… Hehehe, you're lonely, aren't you, Vicky?"

"And you take it like a prison bitch," Victor returned.

"Mm, but I've never been desperate enough to start up a conversation with you, Vic… Why don't you take up a hobby? Max did when he was in recovery."

"Which would be…?"

"This stitch right?" Victor heard Max ask in the background, followed by a gentle laugh from Leo.

"He's learning to crochet," replied Leo. "And he does model planes with Jared to help with his patience and anger management issues…"

"…There's no way in _hell_," Victor muttered, and then hung up the phone, and thought for a few moments. "EMILY!"

"Goddamnit…. What do you need, Victor?" she grumbled as she rushed down the hall and then remained in the doorway, watching as he pulled out his wallet from the dresser and tossed several large-number bills at her.

"Buy me whatever models you can… Preferably cars… And yarn and those stick things you use to make the yarn into things with…. And about two more pints of this ice cream—Chunky Monkey. Phish Food'll do, but you bring Cherry Garcia and I'm going to make your life more hell. And maybe something pretty for yourself… Like a skirt, or something…"

"Uh-huh… You know, I can't wait until you have kids, Victor…" snapped Emily, bending down and picking up the bills and shoving them in her pant pocket. "Your life's going to be hell."

"Mm… Only if I find out that they're Ari's," Victor murmured, sinking down in his bed and tossing the comforter over himself. "Or if they act like my father. First sign of that, the local orphanage will have another Asian child to contend with…"

"…You better hope that they have Ben and Jerry's in hell, Vic," Emily brushed back a few strands of hair out of her eyes, and turning away from him and down the hall. "…I cannot wait until she tells you…"

U.S. Airspace:

"What in the hell was that about?" Max raised an eyebrow, and Leo merely looked to him and shrugged.

"Victor's lonely, I guess…" Leo answered. "I haven't heard anyone sound so needy since you had your back injury…."

"It wasn't an 'injury'. I was about two centimeters away from being a paraplegic," snapped Max, and Leo merely leaned back and tilted his head to one side, allowing it to rest on Max's shoulder. Much of the plane was either asleep as well, or simply did not care about this gesture. But Max gave a small smile at this gesture, and took placed a hand atop Leo's. "Heh, what's the occasion?"

"Can't a guy think every once in a while? I don't get time to do that much anymore," Leo muttered, and Max only gave a chuckle at this, and glanced out the window. "I've just got one of those funny feelings, like something bad happened, and that it's gonna mean hell for us…"

"As long as we come home to a clean house and with all our limbs in tact, I'm fine," Max answered.

Paris, France:

"Jared, give it back!" Dako shouted as she chased Jared through the home, while he laughed and dodged her. Avery tried his best to chase after his two siblings, while his hands moved quickly to form the many words he knew already.

'Yeah, Jared! We'll get in trouble!' Avery signed with a worried expression upon his face, but Jared chuckled, waved the diary at Dako, and then pulled it out of her grasp, while the red-faced girl continued to storm after him. A couple of the five cats in the home went sailing away from the scene as they journeyed into the study, where Leo kept many of his books and Max usually kept out of.

None of the three noticed the knock on the door, and they disregarded it opening, but the visitor certainly heard the series' of crashes and clangs from the study, followed by a moan from all three children, even the usually-mute Avery. Lupin the Third and Fujiko Mine-Lupin went rushing in after them, Fujiko with her mouth covered as she saw where one shelf had collapsed, lending itself into a domino affect, and the entire study had been destroyed with one fail slamming of Jared against the shelving.

"Oops…." Jared murmured as the three stood in the center of the room, and they cringed a bit, expecting their grandparents to begin yelling, but all looking puzzled onward as Fujiko broke into a chuckle and Lupin into a full-blown laugh.

"See?! You can get all the degrees you want, Fujiko-chan, but there's no way you can convince me that these three aren't going to raise some hell when they're older!"

"Are you three all right?" Fujiko kneeled down and looked over the three, and Dako pulled away, and pushed Jared roughly back onto a pile of books.

"I told you to quit!" she shrieked, and stormed out past her grandfather, and almost plowed into the other visiting couple, who had entered during Lupin and Fujiko's own discovery.

"…What the hell?" Zenigata mumbled as Dako stormed down the hall and slammed her door, and Fujiko peered out, not at all surprised at the sight of the ex-inspector and his wife at this point.

"Did we miss the party?" Natasha inquired, folding her arms and glancing into the wrecked study.

"Mm, but you're here just in time for the cleanup," Fujiko replied. "Want to go talk to her while the boys take care of this?"

"Jeeze, I dunno… I'm kinda thinking cleanup duty is better than trying to calm down a preteen," Natasha sighed.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Zenigata snarled, poking a finger into Lupin's back until the equally-puzzled thief turned around.

"I told Ari we'd look after the kids… What're you doing here, Pops, seeing if they were up to eight kids now?"

"…You know, on second thought, you probably could use some support," Natasha surmised, and Fujiko nodded, climbing over a pile of books and heading down the hallway.

"…I'm so dead," Jared muttered, and Avery looked to him tiredly, and then the youngest child smacked his brother on the shoulder with as much frustrated energy as he could muster. "Ow! Not you, too! Ugh…"

"Well, we might as well try to help out here…" Lupin sighed, and stepped into the cesspool of knowledge while Zenigata did the same, gripping onto one of the thief's shoulders for balance. "First we'll have to take care of these shelves…"

Zenigata bent down and started to pick up several books, nodding in gratitude as Avery stumbled over and handed him the heaviest stack the child could carry.

"He's gonna kill me… They both are…" Jared muttered.

"Not if we can hide this well enough…" Lupin replied, looking over the area and then bending down to pick up one of the books.

"What, like lie?"

"Eh, family means a bunch of people who save your ass time after time… Right, Pops?"

"You should have to learn your lesson, though, like a good, structured individual," Zenigata added, purposefully eyeing Lupin as he said this.

"Pops, look around at these books. And it's not just books… They own _scrolls_, for God's sake. This is gonna be enough punishment," Lupin replied, tossing the book he held in his hand to Jared and picking up a much heavier and older one, "_Karma…_" he muttered, making out only the first word in the Indian text, and then flipping it open, "Holy crap! Hehehe, I think there's something to this reading stuff! …Is this even possible?"

Zenigata leaned over and nodded affirmingly, "Yeah, it's possible."

"I wanna see," Jared chirped, reaching up in an attempt to see the illustration for himself.

"When you're older!" both men shouting at once. Lupin slammed the book shut, and Zenigata's face took on a light tint, and the old man cleared his throat.

"C'mon, let's get this taken of," Zenigata mumbled, shuffling to a different area of the study.

Memphis:

"Hehe, that was awesome when you thought Jordan was that guard! I thought you were going to stab him!" Heiji said with a laugh as he, Odori, Jordan, Toshiro, and Yukiko approached the door of the main hotel room of operation, and Odori looked to Jordan plainly.

"I might have," she muttered, and Jordan merely tossed his hands up in the air and then said nothing afterward; he knew just about anything would probably be wrong to her at that moment.

"…Hey, you wanna go talk about this?" Yukiko whispered, breaking away from Toshiro and placing a hand on Jordan's arm.

"I need a drink, and I don't say that a lot," Jordan replied quietly, rubbing his forehead.

"Well, how about we go get some drinks?" she looked over to Toshiro and called out, "We'll be back in a little bit."

Toshiro gave a nod, while Odori merely huffed and coldly turned her head away from the two.

"Yeahhhh let's hurry outta here," Yukiko muttered, pushing Jordan along and down the hall, and to the stairwell.

Heiji sighed and silently reached for his keys, but found the door ajar. He looked back to Odori and Toshiro, and both nodded, each drawing a sword and Heiji shifting his laptop case protectively in front of him.

"Fuji?" he called, and jumped in surprise as a tired-looking Ally exited one of the bedrooms.

"She ain't here, and she said not to go look for her," Ally explained.

"Where's my daughter?" Odori snapped, looking about the living area for Namiko.

"She's fine," Ally held up his hands and sighed. "She's with Ryo…Fuji sent them away…. And she went looking for Hikari."

"What's wrong with Hikari?" Heiji demanded, and Ally found himself backing against the wall as both Odori and Heiji approached him, the same determined looks on their faces.

"Woah, woah, listen! Okay? Don't go killing the messenger! Fuji went to go look for Hikari… She was kidnapped…"

"Oh, is that all?" Heiji snorted. "If that were your kid out there, Ally, you'd be just as pissed off."

"Heiji, she ain't even your kid!" Ally snapped, and Toshiro raised an eyebrow, and Odori merely turned and looked over at Heiji.

"Blood is relative," Odori replied through the silence. "Now where's the child?"

"With her birthfather, we think," Ally answered.

"Which is…?"

"Damn it if you'd quit interrupting me I'd tell you, instead of both you hotheads flying off the handle at me! I've got feelings too!" Ally growled. "It's Mamoru! Mamoru Pycal!"

"What?! He's dead!" Heiji snapped.

"Harry Houdini is dead! Captain America is dead—Mamoru ain't dead!" Ally snapped.

"We have to go after him as well," Odori concluded, sheathing her sword, and Heiji nodded.

"I'll get my bow…" he muttered, heading to his bedroom. He looked to his left and saw Toshiro, who had remained quiet for the duration of their conversation. "You all right?"

"Yeah…. Fine…." he nodded as he looked down at the ground at the sight before him. Jordan was standing close in front of Yukiko, adjusting her fedora and then placing a hand on her cheek. He turned to Heiji, and also drew his sword back in his holster after clenching onto it tightly as he watched the two, "Now let's go get Hikari back…"

"But she said not to go after her," Ally reminded them, and Odori looked over her shoulder at him dully.

"Who had the baby, you or your wife? Get your weapons," Odori snapped, and Heiji drew his head back, as did Ally.

"I'm glad she's adopted, 'cause that was kinda hot," Heiji chuckled, and then headed to the bedroom.

"Ugh…" Ally gave a shudder. "Shouldn't we get Yukiko and Jordan, too?"

"They'll be fine. She has her phone on her," Toshiro answered. "Let's go."

Meanwhile, Jordan turned Yukiko's head to the other side, while she continued to wince in pain, "How in the hell does someone short as you hit their head on the way out?"

"I didn't see the damn pole, all right?!" she growled, and shooed him away. "Jeeze, the one time I try to do something nice for someone…"

"You'll be fine, it's just your nose…. Makes you look a little more like your dad," Jordan chuckled, and Yukiko removed her fedora and smacked him on the arm with it. "What?! Hey, at least you've got someone who'll love you for it…"

"Yeah… And you do, too, even if you look like your dad, too," Yukiko adjusted her fedora once more, pushed up her glasses, and opened the door to the run-down hillbilly-ridden bar. "Surfer and a mobster—You think we stand out?"

"Heh, just order me something hard…" Jordan murmured as he took a seat on one of the barstools, and Yukiko did the same. There was an old man at the edge of the bar, with shaggy gray hair over his eyes and a worn brown coat over his shoulders. He looked tiredly to the duo, and took another sip of his drink.

"They just get weirder and weirder…." he muttered, and Yukiko's mouth drew into a smile.

"I'm buyin' his drinks, too…" she chuckled in the direction of the bartender as she pointed to the old man.

A Memphis Airport:

"Should I break out my ten-gallon hat now?" Max muttered as they boarded off of the plane into the bustling airport, which had more than a few dozen people dressed up in flannel shirts and boots.

"I've never felt more straight," he added, and Leo nudged him and gave him a glare. "What!? I'm just saying…."

"Let's just get our luggage without any trouble?" Leo smiled hopefully, and Max nodded.

"Hey, you think we can get a guy dressed up as Elvis to marry us here?"

"I already married you twice," Leo murmured, and their headed over to baggage claim.

"You're kinda grumpy since we got off the flight… I thought I was the resident tight ass," Max looked over the numerous bags and watched as each one passed by them.

"I just… I've still got that feeling," Leo shook his head. "I just can't explain it, but…. I feel like I'm going to get my ass kicked…"

"You're gay, a bookworm, French, and Asian… And a cop. I don't know of at least one group who wouldn't want to kick your ass," Max said, looking upward to him and then picking up his bag and heaving it over his shoulder.

"You sure you've got that?" Leo asked worriedly, leaning over and attempting to take the suitcase.

"I'm fine," Max sighed. "It'll be too heavy for you…"

"Nah, I'm fine!" Leo chuckled, and took the suitcase, immediately fell to the ground, with the suitcase still in both hands. "What in the hell did you pack in here?!"

"It doesn't matter, are you okay? We don't need both of our backs broken!" Max muttered, and Leo shook his head, and attempted to lift up the suitcase.

"I—Uh-ohoh crap!" Leo yelped, and Max's eye widened as his partner began to walk backward quickly, against the fast speed of rotating luggage.

"Leo?!" Max yelped, and began to chase after him.

"My jacket's caught on it!" Leo yelped, and fell back onto the conveyer be;t, and soon after vanished through the thick black plastic curtain while Max watched in a combination of horror and embarrassment.

One of the workers had seen this unfold, and after some yelling into a walkie-talkie, the luggage came to a halt, just as Leo made his way full circle, clutching onto a black suitcase now, "….I got my bag…."

"Oi vey…" Max muttered, slapping his forehead and doing his best to ignore the chuckling.

"Max! Leo! Detectives Lupin and Zenigata!" they heard, and both turned their heads in curiosity to see Ryo Lupin waving to them.

"Ryoko!" Max growled, and drew out his handcuffs, but Leo slipped out of his jacket and placed a hand over Max's and shook his head as he saw the children with her.

"What the…" Max muttered as she ran forward, a little girl at either side and Dai in his stroller.

"Fuji's in trouble," she panted. "Ally called me… Someone stole Hikari, and she went to go find him…"

"Someone stole her?!" Leo yelped, jumping forward with his suitcase at his side.

"With weird hair!" Saiyuri added, and Namiko nodded.

"Over one eye!" Namiko mimicked this by covering her own eye, and Leo sighed, and stood.

"We've got a problem…" he muttered, turning to Max. "I know we swore to bring Fuji in for stealing…"

"But we're on the same page with her as always, aren't we?" Max sighed in defeat. "Have we ever thought about joining up with her? We could make a hell of a lot more doing it…"

"You're too much of a good guy to be a thief, Zenigata, even if I still think you're a bit of an idiot," Ryo smirked, and Max's cheeks went red, and he balled a fist.

"Now, now, let's just relax…" Leo chuckled, stepping in between the duo and nervously glancing in between Ryo's 'bring it on' look and Max's anger. "First thing's first… We've got to find Fuji…"

"I say Zenigata takes the kids and we go find her…" Ryo suggested, and Leo nodded.

"Wait, this is my case, too!" Max snapped, taking a step forward and frowning. "I'm just as capable!"

"Max, if it's who I think it is, we'll need one of our strongest players to look after these kids," Leo said sternly to his partner. "It's nothing personal against you… We're playing with fire… Literally."

"I…" Max looked down at the children, and took a step forward, shuddering on the inside as Saiyuri took a step back at the sight of his crutch.

"Don't worry… I use it to beat the bad guys with," Max reassured her with a smile. "And idiots… Much like your aunt Fuji… What do you say the taller one pushes the baby, and I'll get you guys something to eat?"

"I'm kinda hungry…" Saiyuri admitted, and Namiko nodded, taking hold of Dai's stroller.

Max looked over to Ryo and frowned, "If he gets hurt, it'll be your head…"

"He still doesn't like you, after all these years," Leo muttered as Max walked down to the cafeteria with the children.

"Gee, I wonder why," Ryo rolled her eyes and nodded. "C'mon, we've got to find her…"

"I'll drive," Leo smiled, and passed her his suitcase. "So where could she be?"

"That's the thing… No one's got a clue… Heiji's been trying to keep a tracker on her for years…"

"I guess nothing was a better tracker than me," Leo hurried out to the sports car with Ryo, hopping into the front seat while Ryo tossed his suitcase in the back and then climbed in the passenger's side.

"Hey, you're always welcome to come back," Ryo smiled, and buckled her safety belt while Leo sped off from the airport. "Now, use your great detective skills to figure out where she might be…."

"She just stole something from Graceland, right?"

"Am I on the record here?"

"Ryoko…."

"Yeah, yeah, she did. A gun," Ryo heaved a sigh, and looked over to him. "And Heiji and the others stole a ring of some kind… I doubt Mamoru's interested in it…"

"She might try a tradeoff… Either that or her life… I know I'd do that for any of my kids," Leo said with a smirk, removing his glasses at a red light and then starting the car back up as it turned green. "We'll try Graceland, see if that gives us any luck…"

"And if not?"

"Then we'll ask around as quick as possible… Either way, time's of the essence. There ought to be an alarm in my suitcase. You think you can reach back there?"

"Yeah, just don't go making any sharp turns," Ryo muttered, turning around and bending over the seat to fish in his suitcase. Leo looked over to her briefly, clearing his throat at the rather _good_ view and then turning his attention back to the street ahead.

"Ummmm Ari?"

"Did one of my cats get in a suitcase again?"

"No, but…" she turned back around, holding a red negligee in both her hands. "I'm kinda curious as to what you and Max do in your spare time…"

"….Well, crap…." Leo heaved a sigh. "My best jackets were in there…"

"They're all your best jackets, because they're all the same," Ryo muttered, and glanced at the tag. "Hey, this is my size!"

"I… Urm…" Leo's face turned bright red, and he nearly missed his turn onto an exit.

Graceland:

Fuji looked over the well-lit building, and brought the Alfa Romeo to a halt, parking it in the grass and not really caring at the moment. She opened the door, and skulked out, looking left and right, and immediately noting the lack of guards or even a token gardener on the property.

"Place like this would be packed with security…" she murmured as she loaded her gun and approached the door. She heard the rustling of leaves, and spun about, frowning as she found nothing, and then turned back around, and tumbled down the stairs of the porch from shock. She groaned after taking a particularly hard landing on her rear, and looked upward, and saw him. It was as if nothing had changed—Mamoru looked exactly the way she had seen him last. Well, before the fire. And he stood there, looking down at her as jovially as he had when they had first met.

He stepped down a few of the stairs, only stopping when Fuji drew her gun and glared at him, "Things are different now…"

"Apparently…" he said in a low tone. "Fuji…. You won't shoot me… Lupins are notorious for not killing."

Fuji fired a shot, grazing his shoulder and lodging the bullet in the door, "I'm not my dad… Now, you have something of mine, and I've come back for it…"

Mamoru started with a chuckle, and then this broke into a full-blown laugh, "You thieves… I heard you're sensitive when someone tricks you with your own tricks! Now, how's the blond woman doing? She's not a bad fighter at all…"

"She'll live," Fuji snapped, keeping the gun close to her as he continued to walk down the steps.

"Well, I'm sure you're thinking that's a shame…" he chuckled, and eyed her. "You always were strange when it came to men… I know you loved me… But you also loved two other men at the same time… You're an indecisive girl…"

"I want… My daughter… Now…" Fuji demanded through gritted teeth, and he laughed again.

"Go ahead and shoot me," he reached out to touch her, and Fuji fired, but the bullet only sailed through him. Mamoru laughed as though the bullet tickled, and Fuji glared as the image faded out.

"Damn it! I should've known…" she sighed, looking around for him. She heard the squealing of tires behind her, and she snapped her head in the direction of the gates, where Leo was zooming in with Ryo in the passenger seat.

"Hey, Fuji!" Leo called, and waved, then fell dead silent. There was a loud BANG and then the car began to spin out onto the grass, landing inches for the fountain. "...She shot at us!"

"She's distraught," Ryo explained, climbing out of the car and taking the suitcase with her. "Come on, we can help her…"

"Yeah, if she doesn't try to freakin' kill us, first," Leo muttered, hopping out of the car and taking his badge along with him. "Fujiko Lupin the Second, this is Detective Leo Lupin!"

"And what, I'm under arrest!?" Fuji snapped, and Leo shook his head.

"We're here as your backup!" Leo called, stopping in front of her.

"I don't need help, even though I appreciate it…" she muttered, looking away from them, and Ryo sighed, taking Fuji's chin and forcing her to face her friend.

"We didn't ask you if we could help. We're helping you," Ryo said sternly. "The others should be here soon…"

Fuji continued with her hardened look for a moment, until this subsided into a smile, "I… Thanks, Ryo-san…"

"Someone needs to keep you in line," Ryo answered with a chuckle, and patted her shoulder.

"There they are…" Leo sighed with relief as Heiji, Odori, Ally, and Toshiro pulled up. "…Where's Yuki and Jordan?"

"That's what I want to know," Ryo blinked as they hopped out, Toshiro with a dark look drawn over his face. "Please tell me they took another car…"

"Where's Yukiko and Toshiro?" Leo wondered as they hopped out and along with their weapons.

"Woah, you said they were fine…" Heiji muttered, looking over to his brother.

"We'll talk about that later. Let's go into plan beta alpha," Fuji removed her gun, and smiled dutifully. "Toshiro-chan, you and Dori-chan and Leo-kun keep your eyes on the downstairs… Ryo-san, you, Heiji-chan, and Ally-chan and I'll take the top floor. I'm going to the bedroom."

"Why do you think he's in there?"

"Because it's the most protected room…"

"Hey, we got into it with no problem," Ally said as he followed Fuji in, and Heiji only looked over the two in confusion.

"I'll check in there… Everyone else split up," Fuji ordered, and received nothing but a silent nod of agreement as everyone took their places.

A Memphis Bar:

"Excuse me…" Yukiko felt a tug at her jacket sleeve, and snapped her head to a side to see the old man she had been buying drinks for standing there, with a weak, aged smile on his face. "I was hoping I could ask you one more favor…"

"Urm… Sure, Pops, what do you need?" Yukiko made sure to glance at her gun, as well as to Jordan, while she spoke to him.

"I… I have no money for a ride home, I was wondering if I could perhaps get one from you?" he inquired, and Jordan leaned forward, looking past Yukiko to him.

"Sure, old man… Just get whatever you need, we'll get you home safe."

"Thank you," he nodded, and hobbled to the front door.

"Are you nuts?!" Yukiko hissed, pulling on Jordan's shirt sleeve.

"What? I'm pretty sure I could take him, Yukiko…"

"If he has a gun, or a knife, it doesn't matter how the hell tall you are! I think you've been working out too much, or eating too much of Odori's cooking, 'cause you're gion' friggin' brain dead!"

"Well, hey, it's a Jigen's job to look after the Lupin family, anyway," he slid off of his seat and grabbed his jacket. "Just sit in the back seat, and keep an eye on him. We'll be fine."

"Last time it was your dad who said that to me, and I ended up taking a fall from a theater catwalk," Yukiko grumbled, pushing down her fedora and throwing her money on the bar table on the way out.

Graceland:

"God help me…" Toshiro muttered as he peered in the glass cases full of Elvis memorabilia and pictures.

"Praying?" Leo asked as he pulled back a curtain and inspected it for any signs of life. "I never got why you liked Elvis so much…"

"When the workers built the dojo that my family owned in the 50's, they brought a record player and some records with them… A lot of them had worked on bases, so they were American records. They left them after construction, and I found them years later," Toshiro explained, and looked over his shoulder to Leo. "They were the only part of the outside world I had…"

"Well, you had to have gone to school," Leo cautiously turned a corner, only to find nothing.

"My mother taught me what I needed to know," Toshiro also made the turn, and became aware of a rustling behind one of the thick curtains. He motioned for Leo to move back, and Leo nodded, stepping back while Toshiro cut through one of the curtains. The curtain fell to the ground, along with about a foot of black hair, cut at an angle. Odori spun around, her eyes wide, and looked upward at the ceiling, then to her brother. Leo and Toshiro led her away before she could see the hair spread on the ground.

"Did you find anything?" Ryo was on the stairs, her gun in hand, and both men shook their heads.

"Nothing…" Odori added, turning her head and showing off her new shorter hairstyle. Ryo's eyes went wide, and she began to say something, but Leo lunged for her, placing a hand over her mouth.

"We know, she doesn't," he whispered, and removed his hand.

"Where's Heiji?" Odori inquired, sheathing her sword and turning to Ryo.

"He, um… Went to check on the security tapes…." Ryo answered as best as she could while not breaking into a laugh, which was more than a little tempting for her. "Why… Why don't we look out in the backyard?"

"What's she so upset over?" Odori whispered as Toshiro passed her, and her older brother merely shrugged.

Heiji at that very moment sat in front of all of the security cameras, typing in the necessary codes to break through or illuminate different areas of the property. Other times, he would have kept the place in complete darkness, but Mamoru already knew where they were. He had been expecting them, and they were probably right where they wanted.

"You're looking at the wrong day," Heiji jumped in his seat, and spun around, and all that he could see was a hand stretching out of the shadow, holding a disk. "This is the day you want…"

"No, I think I'm on the right day…" Heiji eyed the security camera for the room to see if there was a better shot of who exactly it was, or if he held any weapons, but there was no one, only himself. "How the…"

"Why don't you… Just put in the disk…?" the voice attached to the arm stepped back into the shadow, and Heiji lunged after him, only to run into one of the large computers face-first.

"Ow… How the… How the hell did he do that?" Heiji groaned and fell back in his seat, picking up the disk after nursing his pain and studying it.

Fuji was in the master bedroom again, looking about with her gun drawn but with all available lights shut off, as to hide her in the shadows as well. She took another step, this one toward a closet door, and gasped as she heard crying. "Hikari?!" she gasped, and reached for the handle, opening it with perhaps too much ease. There sat the baby in the middle of the walk-in closet, on a blanket, wailing. Fuji ran to her, scooping down and lifting her into her arms. "I'm so sorry…" she whispered into the infant as she back out, and then began to look over the baby. "If he hurt you…"

"I wouldn't hurt my own child," Mamoru said from the bed, where he sat, looking as calm and collected as ever. "And I wouldn't hurt you… I could have easily made that doorknob electrified, and fried you, Fuji, but I wouldn't do that to you…"

"No, you'd just almost kill my friends!" Fuji snapped, holding the baby close to her while keeping her gun pointed at Mamoru.

"This is really me, Fuji," Mamoru explained, standing and approaching her. "If you shoot me, I'll bleed, and I'll probably die from it."

"Good!"

"Fuji…" Mamoru held out his hands, and sighed. "I made a mistake. I… I love you… I want to have a family with you."

"I don't believe you," Fuji snarled, and backed away from him. "I don't want to see you again. I want you to stay away from me, my daughter, and my family…"

Mamoru's arms fell to his sides, and he tilted his head downward. "Fine… Then we'll do this the hard way…"

"This is fine…" the old man coughed a bit, and pointed to the metal gates. Jordan frowned and looked over to the mansion, then over to the old man.

"Hey, um, this is Graceland…"

"I know," he nodded. "I am—"

"Hey, ain't that Ryo's sportscar? And the Alfa Romeo? And the SSK?" Yukiko asked, looking out onto the front of the property.

"Hell, yes!" Jordan snapped. "They left without us!"

"Well, he's gotta go here anyway, so he'll have no problem with us joining them," Jordan muttered darkly, making a sharp turn into the mansion's gardens. The old man smiled.

They zoomed to the front doors, both ignoring the sound of sirens in the distance, "Why the hell did they leave without us?" Yukiko wondered, and Jordan turned around to call to their guest, but found him gone.

"Where the hell did he run off to?" Jordan asked, and quickly grabbed Yukiko and fell to the ground with her as a bright white flash came from the second floor of the house.

"No time to wonder…" Yukiko rose and drew her gun, then pushed up her glasses. "We've got to take care of a few small things, first."

"Agreed," he nodded, and both ran off into the home.


	10. My Old Flame

DISCLAIMER: As always, I don't own Lupin III, although if I did the royalties certainly would help pay for a new bumper for my car --'

Aloha!

And as always, hello! Welcome back! Been a while, I know. Oh, me? Nope, just been busy with school. Note to self—_Never_ _do five classes again._ Getting a lot more writing done—I'm not going to put anything in stone yet, but there might even be an update to many of my stories in the coming weeks! Summer is a mere two weeks away, and oh what a long two weeks it feels like. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and if you have any questions, comments, etc, please… Oh, what's the phrase you kids use?... 'Show me some love' and review. Thanks a bunch!

--The management

Fun Fact of Boredom: I'm continuing with the trend of familiar faces… If you can figure out who the newest character in this chapter is related to, you'll get a personal pat on the head from me.

Chapter Ten: My Old Flame

"FUJI!" Ryo shouted, and all ran to the source of the light from the back yard. In the front entrance, Yukiko and Jordan stormed into the house, and all converged on the stairwell alongside a determined-looking Heiji, who had his bow already aimed toward Mamoru's back. The door had flung open, and Fuji lay on the ground, with her face hidden on the floor while Hikari wailed beneath her.

"Heiji, wait!" Toshiro shouted, and Mamoru turned at this noise, and glared.

"You all have to always be there, don't you?" Mamoru muttered with annoyance.

"That's what family does," Heiji mumbled. "Now back away from my daughter and my girlfriend…"

"Your daughter?" Mamoru gave a chuckle.

"I'm more of a father than you…" Heiji answered, and drew back the bow, and let the arrow sail. Much to the surprise of all, it stopped inches away from the magician, right in midair. It then turned itself about, and went sailing toward Heiji's chest.

"Ngh!" Odori's body jumped in front of her brother, her sword slicing the arrow in half. One half of the arrow sailed past Heiji, barely missing his face, while the other half landed in Odori. She slumped to the ground, glaring at Mamoru, and grasped onto the arrow while saying nothing to him, much less yelling in pain.

"Dori!" Jordan yelped, and bent down beside her.

"I'm fine," she grunted, and began to rise, only to slip back down to the floor.

"Jeeze… You little idiot…" Jordan murmured, and scooped her up in his arms. "I've gotta get her out of this…"

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're not! Damn, Dori, let me be the man for once!" Jordan shouted, and the samurai's eyes widened with surprise, and Jordan lifted her up. "I'm getting her out of here."

"Here," Leo tossed him a cell phone along the way. "Max is m y first speed dial. He'll call the cops."

"Are you freakin' NUTS!?" Yukiko shouted, and Leo turned and glared at her.

"I'll make sure you get out of here. Just trust me," he demanded, and their staring contest was broken as Heiji made a run for Mamoru. The magician held out his hand, shooting out flames and knocking Heiji back from the extreme heat these produced.

"Guns don't work on him… Bows and arrows don't work on him… This guy's a Goddamn T-3 unit," Yukiko grumbled as she loaded her gun and spun the magazine, and fired several shots at Mamoru. These too stopped, and as they turned around, all of the group hit the floor, save for Toshiro, who drew both of his swords and sliced each of the bullets in half.

"It's bad enough a piece of scum is here in a place I think is sacred, but to her my friends… You're dead already, as far as I'm concerned."

"No…" Fuji rose shakily, still clutching onto Hikari while struggling to keep herself on her own feet. "You guys… Aren't going to drag yourselves into this… It's my mistake."

"Fuji, most of us are mistakes," Ryo stood, cautiously peeking out from behind Toshiro. "It's what a family does. We bail one another out."

"And occasionally ask for money," Ally added with a smile.

"And sleep with one another," Heiji added. This resulted in pale looks from all, particularly Ally, and even Mamoru's stern expression fell into one of confusion. "What? I just said what everyone was thinking."

Toshiro looked to Yukiko, who gave a shrug and nodded, "Who did you… Oh, right, Jordan. Heh," he started, then shook this off and looked back to Mamoru.

"We're not leaving her, Mamoru," Ryo continued, stepping in front of Toshiro now and approaching the magician. "She's not yours. She's not something you can steal from us… And if you try, we'll steal her right back. We're the mistakes of a gang of the greatest thieves the world has known… Don't think you'll get away with her…"

"One B.A. later and she thinks she's Frost," Yukiko said with a roll of the eyes.

"…I…. Thank you…." Fuji said to the team with a bowed head, and Ryo simply smiled at this gesture.

"….Enough of this crap," Mamoru snapped, and held out his hand to fire more flames, but as he did, the flames dispersed, and flattened themselves against what appeared to be an invisible wall. Yukiko's mouth fell open as the same old man who she and Jordan had given a ride to descended from through the ceiling, and then stood in front of Mamoru, with a dull look upon his face and no emotion showing in his one revealed eye. "Wh… What?" Mamoru choked.

"You've caused enough trouble," the old man said calmly, motioning through the air with his arm extended and making the fire vanish.

"….Okay, _what_?" Heiji asked sharply, breaking the silence.

"It's time you came back," the old man continued. "If you're going to fight them, I'm going to teach you the proper way to."

"I don't even know who the hell you are," Mamoru snarled, taking a step back.

"You do, and that's what frightens you," the old man took a step forward, and this continued as he spoke, until he had nearly backed Mamoru against the wall. Mamoru shot out another flame, and this engulfed the man, but he was not harmed.

"Oh no way," Fuji whispered, and the old man looked to her, scanning her up and down and giving a small smile.

"You look just like your mother… That makes me want to kill you more, but it also makes me want to spare you," he said to her in the same calmness, and looked to Mamoru. "We're going. I do not want my bloodline more soiled than it is by a Lupin child learning the secrets I built my family on."

"Hey, I think he was in your class, Ryo," Ally chuckled, and Ryo elbowed him in the gut sharply for this comment.

"You can't do this to me!" Mamoru seethed at the man. "I spent my life trying to avenge you! Why are you only showing up now!?"

"…You really think I had time for children?" he said with amusement. "Not all of us go soft, like Lupin." A white puff of smoke filled the room, temporarily blinding everyone in the room and making Fuji quickly slip off her jacket and swaddle Hikari in it, then run blindly to the entrance. She nearly collapsed, falling over her feet, but felt a firm hand on either arm, and then the sense of being lifted up from the ground. As two more arms reached out for Hikari, Fuji's hand lunged out, gripping the unknown man by the wrist.

"Relax," Ally said reassuringly, and Fuji's grip softened, and her arm finally fell limp at her side, and she exhaled calmly.

She awoke in a bed, and the ceiling spun for a few moments before she bolted up in her bed, "Hikari! Where—"

"Relax," Carmen approached her, her arm down in a sling and a few scratches on her cheek. "She's resting with the other children. Detective Zenigata brought them home safely yesterday."

"Yesterday? How long have I been out?" Fuji muttered, placing a hand on her head and noting the bandages all along her left hand and arm. "Well, I think I know how my dad felt now when he took a tumble off your house's roof. What happened to you?"

"I broke a bone whilst slamming a chair into Mr. Mamoru's back," Carmen answered with a smile, and Fuji chuckled.

"You, Zenigata-san, and Jordan… I think there's something about blondes that leaves them perpetually pissed off at the world," Fuji rose and glanced curiously at the red kimono she was dressed in.

"Miss Odori's," Carmen went on to explain. "She insisted you be comfortable."

"I always knew Dori-chan liked me!"

"YOU! Thank the gods you're awake!" Odori shouted as she burst into the room, although it was not a happy shout. "Look at what your excursion did to my hair! It's ruined!"

"Dori-chan, you look nice with that haircut!" Fuji replied, craning her neck a bit to see that instead of past her lower back to her rear, Odori's hair came barely beneath her shoulders when tied back as it usually was. "A regular Eriko Sato!"

"Your flattery does little for me," Odori muttered.

"How's about a nice vacation?"

"I would take one if you'd ever pay me what I ask."

"Dori-chan, you've got to understand, we work on a much larger scale."

"Three more people than the original team fails to strike me as a much larger scale," Odori returned sharply, and the corner of Fuji's mouth twitched.

"Listen, here," Fuji hobbled over to her purse, and pulled out a few bills. "Take this, make Jordan wear a suit, and go get dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant on me, all right?"

"This will suffice," Odori nodded in approval as she counted out the bills and shoved them in her gi sleeve. "…I'm glad you're all right, Fuji."

"You thought something liked a spurned ex-lover who shoots fire out of his hands would scare me off!? Pfft, Dori-chan, here I thought you knew me!"

"….Well, I can see that the attack didn't damage your brain. You're still an idiot," Odori said flatly, and then made her leave of the two.

"Eh, she loves me, she just won't say it…" Fuji said confidently.

"Now, when you say 'love'…" Carmen began hesitantly.

"I just shared a womb with the bisexual guy, it doesn't mean I have to like guys, too! Urm, wait… Hehe, you know I'm strictly guys for the most part, Carmen-chan, but I'm never one to say no to trying something different," Fuji clasped her hands together and leaned inward to Carmen, who instinctively yelped and smacked Fuji away from her.

The Cagliostro royalty then gasped, "I… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…"

"Ow… Damn it… It's okay… Comes with the Lupin territory, I guess," Fuji answered, rubbing the fresh new red mark her cheek bore. "Well, I better get my dress on…"

"Where're you going?"

"I've still got a treasure to find!" Fuji announced as she opened the closet and pulled out one of her short red ensembles. "I can hear it calling to me already!"

"….I'll go get the others… I'm sure Heiji will be especially excited," Carmen announced, and turned to leave.

Fuji began to remove her kimono, but glanced at the bandaging briefly in the midst of this, sighed, and then resumed changing.

Paris:

"A concert," Max replied, and Leo remained quiet for a long while, concentrating on his driving or perhaps allowing this to sink in while Max scanned over the questions in the teen magazine that Dako had left in the back seat of the car.

"That's the weirdest place you…. Who in the hell were you seeing, anyway?!"

"Donna Summer. I got drug to it," Max shrugged, and wrote in his answer on the lines provided beneath the question. "What about you?"

"A moving Jeep."

"Oh, come on, lots of people—"

"I was driving," Leo continued, and now Max blinked, and went to speak, but then shoot his head, and moved on to the next question. "I'm telling you, these quizzes are garbage. They lead to more fights than anything."

"What's my most annoying habit to you?"

"….Please don't make me answer that…"

"Please do," Max said a little more aggressively, folding the magazine and keeping his eyes intent upon Leo.

"That thing you do while I'm watching TV…"

"Which thing?!"

"You talk while I'm watching a program," Leo replied. "And then you leave your towels on the floor… And you hold your fork wrong."

"Screw you! Well, I think you're a neurotic!"

"I'm not neurotic, I'm cautious. You're a momma's boy," Leo countered, and Max glared.

"You nag like your mother!"

"You nag like your father!" Leo returned, and this went on, until the two were in a full-fledged squabble as they entered the house and then entered the upstairs. Max suddenly stopped at the top stair, and blinked, as if he had realized something.

"You…. Okay?"

"I climbed all the stairs," Max announced in a mutter, and then smiled, and Leo's numb expression soon turned into a happy one as well, and he embraced his partner while laughing happily.

"…Please tell me that's something other than your phone," Max sighed as this tender moment was broken by the sound and sensation of a vibrating phone.

"Afraid not… Hrm, the station…" Leo mumbled as he immediately recognized the number. "I'm gonna go answer this…"

"Maybe they're finally begging for us to come back!" Max suggested, and hobbled down the hallway while whistling a merry tune to himself, stopping only when he saw his mother and mother-in-law in Avery's room while his father sat on the bed in his daughter's room and Lupin took a tour of Jared's room.

"….The hell? When did we become the Waltons?"

"I told you he'd be home for Passover!" Natasha yelled happily as she stuck her head out the doorway of Avery's room.

"Crackers and radishes. Yay," was Zenigata's flat response from down the hall.

"How was your trip?" Natasha embraced him tightly, and Max rolled his eyes at this coddling gesture.

"Great… Mom, why the hell is everyone here?" Max inquired as she rocked him back and fourth.

Natasha broke away from her tight embrace, and then shrugged. "We thought one set of grandparents wasn't enough to handle those kids…"

"Uh-huh," Max nodded, and stared at her for a few moments. "Did anything break while we were gone?"

"Only my heart because you were gone so long…"

"…I'm gonna go take inventory," Max declared after a moment, and Fujiko too exited Dako's room, the little girl by her side.

"Aren't you worried he's going to notice the books weren't put back the exact same way?"

"Eh, I know my son. A reader he's not," Natasha shrugged, and headed down the hall. "Now if you excuse me, I think both your husband and mine have been a little too quiet…"

"That usually is a reason for suspicion," Fujiko said with an amused grin.

"God, I hope they didn't break anything else. I'll kill them," Dako said as she shook her head.

"Ugh…Both your parents and mine are here…." Max grumbled as he entered the library. "Maybe we'll have to make up something for Fuji to steal, and slip out the back, huh, Leo? …Leo?"

Leo sat there, leaning back in his seat, with his arms resting numbly on the leather armrests. He looked like a stunned rag doll as Max leaned over, to see if Leo was even alive.

"…What's wrong?" Max placed a hand over Leo's arm and rubbed in with concern.

"I… I need to go to the States…" Leo mumbled, looking to Max and blinking several times.

"Why…?" Max wondered aloud, and jumped with surprise as Leo leaned forward, resting his head against Max's shoulders.

"I might… I have to say goodbye to someone…." Leo whispered hoarsely.

The following day, Washington, D.C.:

"This is it…" Fuji said with a wide smile as she rubbed her hand together ecstatically and looked ahead at the large vault. Toshiro and Jordan shed their guards' uniforms, and stood in their normal attire.

"This better have been worth it," Yukiko grumbled, and Ally snorted.

"You're tellin' me. I've got an anniversary coming up," he said, placing his hands in his pockets and looking it over as well.

"I got it," Heiji rose and stood back as he allowed the machine he had plugged into the security system. It blinked in recognition, and the locks released, and Fuji nodded. The men rolled their eyes and then walked over to the thick metal door, pushing it open with all of their strength.

"I love being a girl," Fuji said with a shake of the head, and entered through the doorway, and then stopped in front of a set of iron bars, along with another heavy door. "Dori-chan, your turn."

Odori glanced to Jordan, and then her wound, and her eyes finally traveled to her brother. "I will let Toshiro take this one…"

Fuji gave a smile, and an understanding nod, and Toshiro lunged forward, slicing through the bars and the thick steel door.

"Ohhhh this is it!" Fuji squealed as she headed over to a large metal safe in the middle of the otherwise barren metal shelter, and removed the ring from her pocket, was well as the gun. She tossed this to Yukiko and instructed her while placing the ring in a circular hole it fit into perfectly. "See the small hole on the front of the chest, Yukiko-chan? Shoot your bullet through there."

"If it were anyone other than Yukiko, I'd say it was impossible…" Ryo announced, and then Yukiko fired, sending the bullet right through one side of the box and out the other. "But it's Yukiko."

"Here it comes…" she peered into the chest as it opened automatically, and then her face fell, and all peered in, with the same sort of contorted confusion on all their faces.

Fuji pulled out the Asian-styled dog statue, and looked over the characters written along the back, "…What's it say….?"

"Thank you for your generosity in helping us further our goals… And your unheard of donation. You have helped make Beijing a forerunner for the Olympics…." Ryo muttered.

"…He got so pissed he threw the money to China…" Ally mumbled.

"No wonder they liked him," Jordan snorted.

"Hey, there's something else here," Yukiko reached deep into the trunk, and pulled out an armful of records. "_Blue Hawaii_?"

"Can I see those?" Toshiro asked, and Yukiko nodded, passing the albums to the samurai. "Ho-ly…. These are… These are all original records! I mean, the-the first printings! You can't get these anywhere!"

"…Well, someone's happy…." Fuji sighed, and set down the dog on the floor. "…Anyone need a paperweight?"

"Don't kick it, Fuji…" Ryo instructed her.

"I don't want to break my foot, too," Fuji answered, and rubbed her eyes. "I… UGH! Damn it…"

"Fuji…" Heiji placed his hand on one of her shoulders.

"….Yeah?" she inquired, still in the same position.

"Here. I don't want it to be an empty trip for you," he reached into his pocket and placed a small black box in her hand. "I was planning on giving it to you after we got the treasure, but…"

"Hrm?" she raised an eyebrow, and glanced to the box, then slowly opened it. "….Woah…."

"I hope it's okay," he said sheepishly.

"….That's so much bigger than the one you gave me," Yukiko muttered with disbelief.

"Yeah, well, I did only pay thirty bucks for it," Toshiro shrugged, and she glared at him. "What?! You would've lost it!"

"I can't believe you really wonder why you're divorced…"

"Well, I guess it was a good trip, after all," Fuji chuckled as she glanced at the diamond.

"Soooo is that a yes?" Heiji inquired, and Fuji laughed, and nodded.

"I don't believe it, Fuji's at a loss for words," Ryo said with her arms folded.

"Aw, c'mon now, Ryo-san, that's never true! I was planning on congratulating you on your bun in the oven!" Fuji said as she slipped on the ring and smiled. "Or buns, hehe… You know, twins run in my family…"

"You're…" Yukiko began, wide-eyed.

"….Pregnant?" Ally choked out, and Ryo rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Well, come on! Treasure or none, this is still happy! Let's go get drunk! Well, except for Ryo…. And maybe Yukiko-san…"

"I'm not pregnant!" Yukiko growled.

"Well, you just look like you're putting on a little, Yukiko-san," Fuji said with a wink.

"Engaged or not, I'm gonna kill her," Yukiko growled.

"…This is fun and all, but some of us promised our significant others a nice dinner out when he came home with a treasure," Ally said with annoyance.

"Ohhh you and Carmen will get it, Ally-chan, you'll just have to take a two-week rain check on it, is all!"

"Where in the heck are we gonna be?"

"Tokyo, naturally!" Fuji answered brightly.

"LUPIN! Come out with your hands up!" she heard bellow down the hall, and Fuji chuckled, and picked up the dog statue, tucking it under one arm.

"Blondie must've wrestled the megaphone out of the cops' hands already… Come on, let's jet," she nodded to the wall behind her, and Toshiro nodded, handing the records off to Yukiko and then slicing a nicely-sized hole through the steel wall.

"Damn it!" Max slammed the megaphone down as he saw they had just vanished, and looked to Leo. "They got away again!"

"Yup…" Leo sighed, his hands in his pockets. "Come on… You had your fun, Max, now we've got a flight to catch… I don't know if we'll even make it, now."

"So where'd she end up, anyway?" Max turned around, oblivious to the onlooking cops, who were shouting curses at the two.

"Tucson, naturally," Leo sighed heavily, pushing up his glasses and glancing to the ground.

A Week Later, Tokyo, Japan:

A large-busted raven-haired woman stood in the hall, collecting tickets, while another woman, dressed in a fresh-looking tuxedo, took the coats of the giggling women, while trying to hide her own groans of disgust. Fuji merely nudged her in the ribs whenever she lost the polite smile on her face.

"I can't believe you're really doing this to them…" Yukiko mumbled, shaking her head while she put away another fur coat. "It's exploitation, Fuji…"

"It's an opportunity, Yukiko-chan!" Fuji whispered, collecting another card from a woman entering and running it through the computer, and smiling as she passed her card back. "It's a small, out of the way club, anyway… With lots of interesting things to offer…"

"I just puked in my throat," Yukiko snapped as she took the woman's coat, and hung this up as well.

Fuji merely smiled as she ran the numbers through, and stifled a squeal of joy as she entered the account, "For what it's worth, their husbands are all corrupt… Mob bosses, mainly…"

"Great, they're Yakuza. Now I feel venerated, but I'm gonna get killed…" Yukiko muttered. "I'm here to steal, not to collect coats. This is friggin' demeaning."

"We're out of wine!" Ryo rushed past the two, her tray still in hand, and Fuji pointed to the back door.

"Plenty of Mountain Dew and cranberry juice there," Fuji muttered, and Yukiko stood back, leaning against one of the archways of the brightly-colored club.

"These are women who bleed money… You really think they won't catch on that you're feeing them stuff that's not even worth 100¥?"

"It's been working… They don't care if it tastes like engine fuel! It's expensive, and it says something… Oh, you have so much to learn, Yukiko-chan… Hrm?"

"What's up?"

"I thought I heard something in the parking lot… Be a dear and check on it while I get Odori to do the coats?"

"Thank God!" Yukiko sighed with relief, tossing the fur coat on the desk and then rushing outside.

"Dori-chan!" Fuji called. "You're needed!"

"…..I hate you so very much," Odori said as she loosened the collar on the black schoolboy's uniform. "These people are degenerates…"

"And rich. That makes allll the difference," Fuji answered as she turned her attention back to her computer.

"You're the worst among them!" Odori shouted as she took the coat of an older woman passing by. The woman looked Odori over, and smacked her from behind lightly as she passed. Odori's features twisted to one of disgust, and she clutched the jacket in her hands.

"You didn't even know host clubs existed, did you, Dori!"

"These are shameful," Odori answered calmly, and she briefly glanced through the beaded curtain to Jordan, who sat tensely next to a woman whose hands Odori had not seen above the table a majority of the night. All this while, however, Jordan had worked himself onto the opposite side of the semi-circular booth, and now sat, ready to fall out and land on his ass if the woman were to advance even once more.

"Jealous?" Fuji asked in a sing-song tone. "You're probably imagining you're in that booth, eh, eh?"

"Don't make me knock out your teeth. It will look unbecoming in your wedding photos," Odori replied calmly, raising a hand to Fuji. "Why am I left with this job, anyway?"

"Ohhh, I've got security checking out a rat problem," Fuji answered with a wink. "You make a cute boy, Dori-chan. You'd probably get mad if I tried to make a move on you though, huh?"

"Ugh!" was Odori's disgusted response. "And they considered your father a shame to his name! You're by far worse!"

"And you're not adventurous in the least," Fuji muttered.

Outside, Yukiko surveyed the darkened parking lot with her hand upon her gun all the while, and a piece of nicotine gum in her mouth, "…Jeeze, they can afford these nice cars, nice jackets… And they have to pay for some guy to pay attention to them. Heh."

She continued to stalk through the parking lot, stopping and spinning about as she heard something skitter behind her. With her gun now drawn, it pointed at the equally confused alley cat, "Oi… Don't scare me like that…" she muttered to the cat, drooping her head and placing a hand on her hat. "Damn cat…" she lifted her head up, but as she did this, she felt a cold barrel against her skull.

"Jeeze, they weren't right. You are getting slow," she heard in a distinctly American tone.

"Great, a Yankee," Yukiko grumbled as she raised her hands. "To what do I owe the pleasure of you potentially blowing my brains out?"

"You're Yukiko Jigen, right?"

"Depends on who's asking. I think you're one of the people who I wouldn't want to know that," Yukiko replied, and there was silence between the two for a few moments. In one swift move then, Yukiko ducked down, and swung around with her leg, kicking the gunman with all of her might. In the process, her fedora flew off, and she picked this up along with her gun. As her assailant reached for his gun, Yukiko brought one of her shoes down on his wrist, and gradually began to add more of her weight to this foot.

"You don't tell me who the hell you are right now, I'll snap it. And I know how to break it so you'll never be able to eat with a spoon again, muchless shoot someone."

"Ow… Leggo… Please?!" he yelped, squirming beneath the pressure. Yukiko kicked away his gun, bending down and grabbing hold of it, and released his wrist.

"Now you try it again, and I'll use both guns on you," she warned, keeping her attacker's own weapon focused upon him. "Names. Now."

"Sam… Sam Meron…" he replied, rubbing his wrist. "You could've broken it!"

"That was the damn point!" Yukiko snapped. "Jeeze… Did your school bus drop you off on the way here!?"

"I just wanted to…" Sam sniffed, and looked down at the concrete. "If I beat you, I'd be the best…"

"No, really?... Are you crying?" Yukiko blinked.

"No," Sam muttered, pulling his hat down further and turning away from her. "Everyone was right, I guess…. I traveled all the way here just to have you kick my ass…"

"Um…. Well, that's usually what I do when someone's threatening to kill me. Fight or flight, and… I like fight a lot more," Yukiko watched as he pulled out a tissue from his jacket pocket, and wiped his eyes. "…Oh, come on!"

"What?"

"Stop it, now! Whoever you're trying to avenge, they wouldn't want you to be crying like a little bitch! Oh. My. God…. You're crying harder now!? Jesus, knock it off!... C'mon… Be a man… Um… It's okay?"

"No it's not. I saved a whole year for a trip to Japan… I trained! For years!" Sam yelled.

"Wow, really? Like, how many?"

"Eight," Sam muttered.

Yukiko's eyes widened, "What, just so you could beat me?... What the hell!? Go home, get a girlfriend, kid!"

"I can't go home until I've proven myself…. Or gotten enough money for a ticket back…" Sam answered sheepishly.

Yukiko paused, opened the whining American's gun, and allowed the bullets to drop the floor, "There, pawn this."

"It still won't be enough… And I don't speak Japanese!"

"That's a tough break, kid," Yukiko tossed the gun back to him, and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Hey, you can tell 'um you had me good for a second, there!"

"I can't leave until I defeat you, damn it!"

Yukiko's eyes shut tightly; she had known it was going to be a long day, but she had no idea it was going to be this long, "Listen, kid. You don't even have anything to offer me. Now, I'm a mom, I need to round up her father and then head home."

"If you don't fight me, I'll fight with Lupin the Fourth!"

"Kid… Lupin the Fourth ain't worth it… He's not his dad, just like I'm not mine. I don't tolerate young punks as well as he did. Now out of here."

"I'm not leaving!"

"I'll shoot you," Yukiko said in a sing-song tone.

"Fine. That is just as bad as the shame as returning home without achieving my goal," Sam replied, raising his gun.

"You asked for it, kid," Yukiko also raised her gun, and pointed into the young man.

"Watch out!" Sam gasped, and Yukiko only smiled.

"Nice try," she muttered, and then felt a heavy force against her head, and then everything around her went black.

When she came to, she was still in the darkness, and, after assessing the situation, realized she was bound by both her feet and legs, and in a small space, like a box. After moving around a bit, and hearing a groan that did not belong to her, she also realized that she was not alone in the crate.

"What happened?" she heard in a murmur.

"Christ, not you," Yukiko sighed, resting her head against the wall of the crate.

"Where are we?" Sam moaned. "Ugh, I can't feel my hands…."

"They're tied up, you idiot," Yukiko snapped, and yelped as she felt the crake begin to rock back and forth, and Sam's head fell onto her chest. "Hey, get off of that!"

"I'm trying!" Sam yelped. "What's going on!?"

"I wish I knew! Now shut up, damn it!" Yukiko hissed. "There might be someone out there who thinks we're dead, so just shut up!"

"Who would want to kill me?" Sam asked in a whisper.

"Hell if I know. I don't even know if there's anything special about you, kid, and I doubt there is…"

The crate, which had rocked back and forth slowly for a few precious moments, then slammed hard onto a flat surface; from the lack of cushioning, Yukiko assumed it was probably concrete.

"Hey, there's airholes up there," Yukiko whispered, tugging on Sam's jacket. "Get up, see what you can see…"

"I'll try."

"Do it," Yukiko adjusted her legs so he could sit up on her, and she placed her hands on his waist to support him.

"It looks like… Trees…." he whispered. "And… A bird… And sky, definitely…. Lots of sky…"

"What!?" Yukiko yelped and sat up, causing Sam to fall back onto her.

"Oof! Ugh… You think we should try to open it?"

"That'd be the next logical step, wouldn't it?" Yukiko sighed. "On the count of three, we kick, all right?"

"Right," he nodded, and placed his legs on Yukiko's shoulders. She maneuvered, and managed to do the same, and at the count of three, both kicked, causing the box to explode on all four sides. Yukiko had the foresight to also keep her hands raised, so the top piece did not fall on her; Sam was knocked out cold until she slapped him awake.

"Get up," she said gruffly, and looked about the forest. "Great… God's country…."

"Oh, a panda!" she heard Sam gasp. "Look at how cute!"

"Panda?" Yukiko choked on the cigarette she had placed in her mouth. "Pandas don't live in Japan…"

Sam approached the infant cub, bending down and smiling widely, "I've only seen these in zoos!"

"Kid, get away…. Where there's a baby—" she heard a grunt from the darkness suddenly, and jolted back. "There's a mom! Damn it, run!"

"It's just a—Wow… Teeth…" Sam muttered as he faltered back when the mother panda made her appearance.

"Come on!" she grabbed him by the back of the jacket collar and jerked him away from the creatures, and continued to flee with him until they were a ways away from the panda, or the crate, or anything that looked remotely familiar.

Yukiko finally stopped, leaning against a thick tree, and panted heavily, looking upward at the sky, "What the hell… This has gotta be China! What in the hell are were doing in China?"

"I…. Well… I might've made some people mad…" Sam cleared his throat, and folded his arms.

"….What'd you do?" Yukiko asked flatly, glaring at him.

"I… Tried to challenge the leader of a Triad…" answered Sam, clearing his throat.

"You!" Yukiko grabbed him by the jacket, and growled. "Who in the hell are you, anyway!? What's with you challenging people!? Do you think being gay makes you less of a man, and you have to be all macho!?"

"I'm not gay!" he snapped, and Yukiko reached over, taking him by the tie and then reaching at his belt and taking his shirt in her other hand. She pulled his dress shirt out, lifting it up and remaining still for a few moments, and only letting go as a stunned Sam began to squirm.

"What was that about?!"

"Just wanted to make sure you didn't have boobs!" Yukiko answered. "The way you bitch, I'd think you would!"

"You didn't have any right to do that," Sam turned around, and tucked in his shirt into his slacks. "What if I did that to you?"

"I'd blow your brains out," Yukiko answered. "Now come on…"

"Where're we going?"

"If we're near Hong Kong, we'll be fine… I've got family there," Yukiko pushed away a mess of thick branches, and trudged through the forests blindly, while Sam tagged along like a puppy.

"And if we're not?"

"Well, we'll see how good my Mandarin is, won't we?" Yukiko answered, stopping and reaching for her phone. She found it was missing, along with her gun. "Oh, God damn…."

"What's wrong?"

"My uncle gave me that gun, that's what's wrong!" Yukiko shouted, spinning around and glaring at him. "They took my damn gun, and my phone, and—Holy crap, my wallet, too! My daughter's picture was in there!"

"Oh, so, you're a mom?" Sam asked with a smile. Yukiko bent down, grabbed a rock, and tossing it as Sam as hard as she could. It missed, but Sam remained there, wide-eyed and stunned. "Listen, I'm sorry! I don't know why you're here, too! They might've thought I was your boyfriend, or something…."

"You?! HA! You're like, ten years younger than me!"

"I'm twenty-four!"

"You're a baby," Yukiko said with a smile.

"How old are you?"

"Thirty-three…"

Sam only snorted, and Yukiko turned around, and glared, "Well, I… You look a lot younger…"

"You're digging an even deeper grave," Yukiko muttered. "Thank God…. A road!"

"Ummm… You're hot for a mom?"

"You say one more thing and you'll be picking up your teeth from the road," Yukiko replied as she held out her thumb at a passing-by truck.

"Yes, ma'am," Sam answered as the truck came to a halt.

"We go on?" Yukiko pointed to the bed of the truck, and the toothless man in the cap grinned a half-complete smile, and nodded. "C'mon, kid."

Yukiko was the first to climb into the back of the old beaten blue truck, followed by Sam, who stumbled in and landed in a pile of hoses in the back of the bed. Yukiko chuckled, and helped pull him out. "There… Now just don't go anything but breath or blink, and we oughta be all right."


	11. Farewell Song

DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE! You sue me, all you'll get is a record player, some jelly beans, and a Mel Brooks box set.

DOUBLE DISCLAIMER: Song does not mean this is the final chapter—It just fits the content. Hope I didn't freak anyone out there, hehe.

J. Lucy-Daisuke stories—Just about as hard to follow as _Lost_ with just as many breaks inbetween, too…

I love vacations…. So much more time to get my writing down. I've had the energy of a sea sponge these past few months (and no, not of the Spongebob sorts). I've been getting all sorts of great feedback on new villains, and I've really liked everything I've heard so far, so many thanks for the ideas! The break will also give me time to catch up on my friends' writing (big yay there). I thank them profusely for their company as well as their patience with me. Well, I hope everyone enjoys the chapter, and I hope to see you all again soon!

--Lucy

p.s.: This chapter goes out to my own Lupin—You know who you are, and you know you're loved, buddy : ) . Hang in there.

Fun Fact of Boredom: Yeah, I've done lemons for these before, but they're mainly on dares, and don't expect to see any of them see the light of day anytime soon. They're in the attic right beside all the dusty workout equipment and a box full of _My Little Ponies_.

Chapter Eleven: Farewell Song

Tucson, Arizona:

"I'm okay to see her?" Leo stood in the waiting room, and the doctor nodded, motioning from him to enter the hospital room.

"I'll wait here," Max answered, clearing his throat and setting aside his magazine.

"It's okay," Leo bent down and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know. You don't like these places…. You can wait in the car, if you want."

"Heh, then who'd be here for you?" Max answered with a shrug, and Leo gave a relieved smile, and then headed into the hospital room.

"Hey… You look good…" he heard in a familiar warm Southern drawl. "Wish you couldn't come when I had my makeup on."

"You still look beautiful," Leo took a seat on the very edge of Arlene's bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Mm, been better," she admitted with a hoarse chuckle, followed by coughing. "How about you? How's Jared?"

"Getting big…" Leo answered. "Just like my dad; a lot of trouble… Loves climbing trees."

"Oh, that's from me," she replied with a smile. "You got a picture of him?"

"Yeah, I brought you some," he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a family photo. "That's his sister Dako, and his little brother, Avery."

"Jeeze, Ari… Good thing you're with a guy… You probably would have had a dozen kids by now!" Arlene said as she looked over the group photo. "Max is getting pudgy…. What's wrong with his arm?"

"Got shot in the back, and he has a harder time walking now," Leo explained. "He's… Getting better, though… We all are…"

"Well, not all of us," Arlene muttered, followed by a cough. "It's okay, though…. I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time, actually…. I just wanted to hang in until I saw you."

"Yeah, I'm sorry it took so long… I had to make sure Fuji was all right, too, and what better way than to catch her at work?... I'm glad I got to see you again," he said quietly, placing a hand on top of hers.

She looked away from him, toward the window, "I'm really glad you didn't bring Jared… I don't know if…. I think it's better he thinks I died a year ago… I don't want him to see me like this."

"I wish I could've brought him… But it's your wish," Leo muttered, clutching onto her hand. "I sometimes wish you hadn't left that night… Even if we didn't end up together, I still could've helped you."

"I would've found some other way to break your heart," she answered with a sigh, facing him once more. "I was the real bad guy, I think."

"Nah… Who am I to call anyone a bad guy?" Leo chuckled. "Look at me. All my hard work, and I still steal sugar from the condiment containers in restaurants…"

"You're the only one who ever really gave me a chance," she said quietly. "I hope Jared turns out like you."

"You wouldn't want that," Leo said in a low laugh. "That'd make him neurotic, and stubborn, and bad with women."

"Yeah, you were, weren't you," she reached up, and placed a hand on his cheek. "Hey, don't cry, okay? I'm happy, I really am. I got to see you, and I got to know that Jared's doing well. Now listen, Ari… My guitar and case are over there, I want you to take it, okay? Give it to him… Tell him… You found it, or something. There's a letter in there for you, too. I don't want him to read that. I don't want you to read it until you're away from here."

"You got it…"

"I'm gonna take a nap, now," Arlene yawned, and shut her eyes. "I'm really sleepy… Please don't be mad at me, okay?"

"Okay, I won't. Promise," Ari rose, and kissed her lightly. "You go on to bed… Don't worry… Everything's going to be all right."

"Love you, Ari."

"I love you too, Arlene," Ari brushed her hair out of her eyes and stood, taking the guitar case and letter, and walking out of the room while wiping his eyes. Max rose from his seat, and embraced his partner tightly and silently for a few moments.

"Shh… You're all right…. You need me to drive?"

"I'll be all right…"

"Nah, c'mon… I need the practice, anyway," Max kissed him on the cheek, and kept a hand on Leo's back all the way out of the hospital. He climbed into the driver's seat, while Leo placed the guitar case in the back seat and then climbed into the passenger's side.

"You sure you're okay to do this?"

"It's my left side I have the most trouble with, Mom," Max said with a roll of the eyes. "What's that you got there?"

"A letter… Arlene told me not to open it until I was out of the hospital," he answered as Max reversed the car, and then drove out of the crowded parking lot.

"What do you think it is? Do you think….?"

"No, she didn't have that," Leo answered as he noted Max's worried expression. "It's nothing like that, I know."

"What is it, then?"

"I'm trying to read," Leo answered with a sigh, opening the letter and then catching another small piece of paper that fell out of the envelope. "…..Oh my God….. Pull over…."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I'm gonna throw up. Pull over _now_, damnit!" Leo demanded, and Max did as he was ordered, pulling off onto the side of the road while Leo rushed out and vomited in a field, standing on shaking knees when he had finished.

Max had stayed in the car during this, reading the letter while Leo took care of his business.

"…Is this for real?" Max asked, holding up the photo to Leo, who struggled back into the car seat.

"I need a drink," Leo mumbled, his head resting back and staring at the roof of the car.

"Ari, I… We'll be okay…" Max sighed, reaching over and placing an arm over his husband's shoulders. "We'll all be okay…"

"What're we going to do now?" Leo asked, and Max smiled, pulling him away and looking him directly in the eyes.

"Well, I'm gonna go kick your sister's ass, as usual, and you're going to go do what you need to do," he replied, and Leo chuckled at this. "You okay?"

"As good as I can be," he admitted, and Max gave a nod, putting the car into drive once again.

Tokyo, Japan:

"It's not unusual for her to run off like this, Toshiro-chan!"

"Fuji, she'd leave me a note or something! She might leave me, but she wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to Saiyuri!" Toshiro snapped as he stood across from Fuji's desk while she worked to divvy out the profit for one of their rare successes of an operation.

Fuji looked up from her books and the shut, then stood, removing her bright-red reading glasses and stuffing them in her jacket pocket, "Let's give it one more day. If we don't hear anything from her, I'll pull out all the stops to find her. Wait, where're you going?"

"To find my daughter's mother," Toshiro answered as he turned away from her coldly, storming out of the office and to the back alley of the currently closed club. He saw Heiji and Ally standing amongst the alley cats, broken wooden planks, and rubbish, a fire blazing in a barrel that the men stood at. Ally had a rare cigarette in his mouth, and tossed this in the fire as he continued to watch the blaze with Heiji.

"….Should I ask?" Toshiro wondered, stopping to stare at the two.

"Just…. No, not really," Ally answered, removing the entire pack of cigarettes from his pant pocket.

"I'll…. Let you guys bond…." Toshiro muttered, looking over his shoulder a few more times before walking down the alley and looking about the cluttered city. "….Who the hell do you call when you need to find someone…. Aw, crap! A detective!" he exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead. "Well… At least I know where to get one of those… Now just to figure out how to get them to help me…"

????????, China

"That was awful nice of him," Sam said as he dusted off his slacks and smiled at Yukiko. She said nothing about this, and only trudged along as she had in the forest.

She turned her back to the village briefly, and glared at him. "I'm still not talking to you…"

"I told you I was sorry! I didn't know that they were going to take you, too!" Sam sighed, tossing his arms up in the air. "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing… I just want to go home…" Yukiko grumbled, stopping and staring out at the miles and miles of housing and factories. "We've gotta be on a coast somewhere…"

"Ohhh! Because more people tend to live closer to water?"

"Because there's a bunch of ships in a distance," Yukiko answered, and Sam blinked, and then continued behind her.

"So, do you think you could have our match when we get back?"

"You're lucky I don't kick your ass off this cliff…. I'm only keeping you around because I'm a mom, and I'd feel like a bitch leaving you out here to fend for yourself."

"I'm not a baby!"

"Fine! You want me to leave you here, fine! I've still got to figure out how to even afford a phone call…"

"Maybe we could get a job somewhere… Just, you know, make money under the table!" Sam suggested.

"Put you on the street for the night; that'd solve all of my problems…" Yukiko muttered, and then stopped. "Hrm… That could work…."

"What?! No way! I've never even—" Sam stopped as Yukiko turned her head to him, giving him a curious glance, "…considered doing something like that…."

"….You're a virgin, aren't you?"

"WHAT?! No!" Sam snapped, and Yukiko only chuckled.

"Wow…. You know, your personality might have something to do with that…"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Lit-tle too forward," Yukiko answered, looking all about her as they passed slum-like apartments, and were greeted by curious glances. "Speaking Japanese in China… Yeah, this is gonna go friggin' well…"

"Well, that's a relief."

"…You have absolutely no concept of sarcasm," Yukiko said with disgust, and turned into a small clothing store.

"Wait! What're you doing!?"

"I figured out how to get some money," Yukiko answered as she searched through the clothing racks. "You've got to distract the clerk, though."

"How do I do that?" he asked, glancing briefly at the stone-faced clerk and then back to Yukiko, who had pulled out a white Chinese-style dress and examined herself in a mirror as she held it up to herself.

"Be yourself… That's usually cause enough for a panic," she replied, placing this back on the rack and continuing to search through the clothing.

"I… Urm, okay…." Sam nodded, and turned to the clerk, giving a smile. He then began to yell, moving large, exaggerated motions, much like a kabuki actor. The older Chinese woman merely stared at him passively. It was only when Sam stopped that she pulled out a shotgun from beneath the counter. Sam's eyes widened, and he ran backwards into Yukiko, who turned around to rebuke him, but grabbed onto him and ducked as she fired, causing a rack of hats to explode where their heads had been previously.

"What in the hell did you do!?" Yukiko demanded as she hid behind a large trunk with Sam at her side.

"I made a distraction!" he answered over the woman's shouting. Yukiko shouted her responses in Chinese, running out with Sam as she did so. When they were a good block away, Yukiko removed her fedora, and then began to beat her companion with it on the bustling city block.

"OW, OW! No, look!" Sam shouted, and pulled out a handful of jewelry. Yukiko's eyes widened, and she grabbed a few of the rings and bracelets from his fist. "I got it while we were down there!"

"…" she quietly placed her fedora back on her head, and chuckled, and then broke out into loud laughter, and slapped Sam on the back.

"C'mon, let's go get you drunk," she stood, and placed the jewelry back in his hand.

"Am I going to be this nuts when I'm older, too?"

"Not unless you're a woman," Yukiko answered with a smile.

Sam nodded, "So, are you going to make your phone call?"

"Just as soon as we hit the pawn shop…"

"…Hey, you think we could get something to eat, too?"

"Kid, I'm gonna get you the biggest plate of General Tso's chicken we can find!"

"Okay…. But wouldn't he miss it?"

"You're on my good side for now; don't screw it up," Yukiko said through a gritted smile.

Tokyo:

"Tell me again how beautiful my eyes are," the old woman giggled from across the table to Ally. As she laughed, her blue wig bobbed in time to the chortling, along with her large jewelry and both of her chins. As she did this, Ally felt a foot on his leg, and then felt the foot work its way up.

"WOAH!" his voice cracked, and the table jumped as he did. "I've gotta… Urm… I gotta use the john."

"I had heard American men were a little more loose with their language," she finished off her fifth drink, and then reached across the table for Ally's drink, and finished this off in one long swig as well.

"I ain't getting' paid enough for this," Ally said with a shake of the head. He felt a smack against his rear, and stopped, turning around slowly and staring back at the shaking hunched-over woman with the thick glasses who smiled widely at him.

"I'm gonna puke," he muttered on the way to the bathroom, clasping a hand tight over his mouth.

"Sissy…" Heiji snorted as he watched Ally pass, and then turned his attention back to his comic book.

"Heiji-chan, I've got another customer for you!" Fuji said in a sing-song tone as she placed her arms about his neck.

"Hold on…. I'm on the last week of _52_…." Heiji answered as he flipped another page.

"Think while you're reading about people getting eaten by giant crocodiles you could tell me what you and Ally-chan were doing in the alley?"

"Letting go of the past," Heiji answered, looking up from his comic book and smiling. "You know, you never said 'yes'…"

"I'm wearing it, aren't I?" she patted him on the back and smiled. "Now, you've got another customer… Why don't you set that aside and if you're a good boy I'll buy you those new Pokemon games…"

"You really know a way to a guy's heart, Fuji," Heiji chuckled, and set aside the comic book on the bright red booth seat. Fuji nodded and walked away from him, allowing the older woman to take a seat across from Heiji. She was outwardly nervous, fidgeting with her kimono sleeves as she looked over the menu of drinks.

"And how are we this morning—Oh my God—MOM!?" Heiji choked, and Amaya's eyes widened, and she balked as she jerked her head up to face Heiji.

"Urm, I better go," Amaya mumbled, not even paying attention to the questioning glances of the other women or the stunned look of Odori.

"What're you doing here?!" Heiji whispered, gripping onto her kimono sleeve.

"I… Ugh, this is embarrassing…"

"Um, yeah," Heiji nodded. "Now what's going on?"

"Well, I was curious…." Amaya said hesitantly as she took a seat across from him. "Your father had talked about geisha houses… And I heard of these, and I thought I'd see how much they were alike…. I have nine children at home, Heiji…. I was just going on vacation with a friend…"

"Who else is here?"

Amaya cleared her throat, and nodded back to Ming, who sat at a table on the other side of the room and glanced to her watch.

"….This is disturbing…." Heiji muttered, rubbing his temples.

Toshiro was only now exiting the bathroom, and tapped Fuji on the shoulder as he passed. "Hey, we need a cleanup in the men's room… Huh… Hey, Dori, Mom's here!"

"You're the reason some women eat their young," Odori snapped, pushing past him and into the back alley.

Tucson, Arizona:

"Looks like I'm not going to escape that _Girlfriend_ song here, either," Leo muttered as he entered the large arena to the sound of Avril Lavigne. As if his stomach weren't churning enough already.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please give a round of applause for The Fighting Rams, Linner Elementary cheerleading!" the woman over the loudspeaker called, followed by cheering from all around the stadium.

Leo took a seat next to an American couple; a bored-looking father and a mother done up in thick makeup, and smiled nervously at them. He then watched as the child filed out, their pom-poms at their side, and the heavily-makeuped woman nearly knocked Leo out of his seat as she rose to cheer.

"Um, which one's Faye?" Leo asked the woman as she sat down, after the cheering had subsided.

"That l'il one there… The l'il Asian girl," the woman whispered. "Faye's good friends with my daughter… Are you related?"

"Um… Yeah, actually," Leo nodded, and watched as the said girl flipped and landed on the ground, and smiled at the crowd. "….Wow…."

China:

"Nice place!" said Sam with a wide grin as he looked about the mainly bright-red hotel room.

"Looks like my mom's dining room…" Yukiko mumbled as she too looked about the room, and went to go inspect the bathroom.

"Hey, this bed's comfy!" Sam said as he plopped down on the said mattress and fell back, looking upward at the ceiling. "Hrm… There's a mirror on the ceiling!"

"Greattt…." Yukiko rolled her eyes, and glanced in the mirror once, then did a double-take. "Jeeze… At least I've still got my looks…." She removed her fedora and pulled her hair back, sighing and looking over her shoulder. "I'm gettin' a shower. Don't try to break anything…. Well, in that case, don't leave the bed. Just turn on the TV, and sit there."

"Okay…" Sam sighed and sat back on the bed, reaching for the remote and switching on the television. He flipped through several channels, briefly stopping upon some cartoons, and then settling on a bizarre game show.

Yukiko, meanwhile, had taken her shower, and found a kimono supplied by the hotel, "Time for a haircut, I think…" She reached into the drawer and looked about, quite satisfied in finding a pair of scissors, and wiped away the steam from the mirror. Her eyes bolted open as she also saw the presence of another individual in the room. She quickly spun about, the scissors clenched in her hand. "Who are you, and how the hell long have you been standing there!?"

"That brat's lucky," answered the individual, who looked Yukiko up and down as he spoke.

"Hey, eyes up here!" Yukiko demanded. "How'd you get in here?!"

"The window…" he nodded to the tiny opened window above the toilet, and smiled, taking a step closer to her. "I'm flexible like that."

He was a good half-foot taller than Yukiko, dressed in a dark suit as well as sunglasses, and spoke to her tauntingly in heavy, steadily-toned Mandarin. Yukiko's grip on the scissors tightened, and she lunged for him, only to get pinned against the wall by the neck.

"I like it when they fight back," he said with a smile, and reached into his coat, pulling out a dagger of his own. Yukiko's arm that held the scissors was pinned back by his elbow, and her free hand flayed about wildly, seemingly reaching for air.

The invader was not daunted as he heard the door open, the cautious call from Sam, and then the gasp of surprise.

"Let her go!" Sam snapped. The man only smiled, and turned his head to face the shorter man. It was during this time Yukiko grabbed the wrist of his free hand, and twisted it. There was a crunching sound, and he dropped both Yukiko and the knife simultaneously, and the gunwoman and the blade both fell to the ground at equal times. He managed to stagger back from her, and broke into a run, pushing Sam out of the way and bolting for the door.

"Don't let him get away!" Yukiko choked. "What're you doing, you idiot?!"

"You're hurt," he answered, kneeling down in front of her and pulling her hand away from her neck gently. "Let me see that…"

"Get away," she grumbled, smacking him away and looking toward the shower.

"I… I'm really sorry…" his shoulders began to shake, and he sniffed. "I… This is all my fault! You have nothing to do with this, and…. And… I'm so sorry!"

He broke out into full-fledged crying, and Yukiko heaved a small sigh, sitting up and reaching over, placing a hand on his shoulder gently. His eyes met hers, albeit questioningly, and she gave a small smirk, "….Thanks…. If you hadn't come in, I probably would've been sushi by now…."

"You just don't want to see me cry anymore…."

"Hey… That ain't true! Well… Yeah, it's all true…. But that other part's true, too," Yukiko continued. "And you did good… You… Probably would've just killed me anyway had you tried to fight him…"

"You really think that?"

"Urm… Yeah…. Soooo… Thanks," she muttered, clearing her throat and glancing offward. "So! What do you say to ordering room service?"

"That sounds good…. But you might want to pull your kimono back up, first…."

Yukiko furrowed her brow in confusion, and then glanced downward, realizing that during the struggle her kimono had fallen off of her shoulders. She gave a loud yelp and spun about to adjust it.

"Please tell me that wasn't down that long…." Yukiko said with clenched eyelids and a moan.

"I'm… Gonna head out… Watch more TV…." Sam answered, clearing his throat and looking back over to the television.

"Wait… Sam, I… Ugh, nevermind," Yukiko muttered, and pulled her kimono tightly about her. "…Stupid kid…." she added with a fond smile.

Tucson:

Leo had sat through the entirety of the cheerleading competition, and smiled proudly as Linner came in second place. The girls all cheered wildly, and Leo watched closely to see if any family approached the small brown haired girl. An older man did, patting her on the shoulders and then embracing her. The corner of Leo's mouth twitched automatically in response, and he hurried down the stairs of the stadium, working his way through the crowd until he met eye contact with the stunned man.

"Sir! Sir, Wait!" Leo called, and motioned to him, nearly tripping over a few overly-excited girls in the process. "My… My name's Leo LeBlanc. I was hoping I could give you this and have you call me," he passed his card to the pale man and his confused daughter.

"….You one of them business men dad works with?" the young girl asked, tilting her head. "You talk kinda funny…"

The man was aghast, and he answered in a stuttering Southern drawl, "You… You have to excuse Faye, she…"

"No, it's okay," Leo chuckled, and bent down to face her. "I grew up in both Japan and France, so my accent's a little strange… I make rolling 'l's," he laughed at this, but it was apparent she didn't share in the joke, and only looked at him puzzlingly.

"Why don't you go visit with your friends, Dear? Mr. Lupin and I have a few matters to attend to…."

"Mr. Lupin? But I thought his name was—"

"Faye," he said sternly, and she nodded, picking up her poms poms and rushing off.

"I'm… I'm sorry to meet you like this… I just thought…."

"I knew you'd show up," the man sighed, and removed his checkbook from his pocket. "I suppose you want money, too…"

"What?! NO!" Leo yelped, holding up his hands. "I don't want your money. Not meaning to brag, but… I'm pretty well-off. I just wanted to talk about…"

"Arlene. What's the harpy want now?" he sighed, and Leo's features darkened.

"She's dead," Leo answered in rare sharpness. "I didn't know my son was a twin until she passed away."

"There was a boy, too? Hrm, I wasn't aware…." The man muttered, and looked back to Faye, who was giggling along with her friends. "She's happy here, Mr. Lupin… She has friends, she's an all star cheerleader, straight A student… Sings in the church choir! And from what I've heard you're a sodomite who married a Jew and does cartoon voicework! Yes, I've done my homework on you…."

"Maybe… Maybe we should take this outside," Leo said, nodding to the exit. The man only laughed.

"Are you really gonna try to fight me? From what I hear, your kind aren't the fighting sort."

"I really hope you mean the French," Leo snapped, his face flushing a bit. "I did my research too…. Nice going with your secretary… And you're running for what political seat, now?"

"Are you blackmailing me?"

"Sir… I was publicly outed in a three-ring circus of a trial… I have a porn video so popular that I crashed Limewire and Sharebear. I don't have anything to hide or run from anymore," Leo said seriously. "The Lupin family isn't like other families. If this girl doesn't come with me, she's in danger of being found out, and she'll be a walking target, like my aunts and uncles two years ago. We almost lost our lives then."

"…I hope you know you'll be tearing a family apart," snarled the man, now closing in on Leo, and leaving inches between them.

Leo paused, and gave himself a moment to regain his confidence, "I'm going to feel bad for her…. But I don't think I will for you."

"Give me the night to get her packed and to say her goodbyes."

"If you try to run I'll get my sister and brother to help me find you. And you don't want that," Leo replied coldly, and the rotund man stared at him in disbelief, backed down, and then turned back to his daughter. Leo quickly rushed out, found the nearest bathroom, and once again threw up, this time remaining on the cool tile floor for a few moments before wiping his sweating forehead and rising, and pulling out his cell phone.

Japan:

"Going so soon?" Fuji asked quietly from the doorway of Toshiro's hotel room while the samurai folded another kimono and placed it in his suitcase.

"Mm… I have to find Yukiko. It's not like her to stay away so long, especially without calling anyway. Not even Jigen or Ming have heard from her… This would've been her ten years ago, but not now."

"I'm already packed," she walked over, and slapped him on the back. "A promise is a promise, right?"

"What about your scheme?"

"I'veeeee got Ally and Heiji working on it. I kinda need the time away from both of them, anyway," she coughed and looked offward while Toshiro frowned curiously at her, silently urging her to explain this. "Heiji got this tape…. It was of me and Ally…."

"Oh, God. Again?"

"Not anything that bad," she held up her hands in defense. "But they're just trying to put this behind both of them… And I think that it'd be easier if I went away for a little while…. So they'll be working on this, and we're taking Ryo-san with us!"

"What about Odori and Jordan?"

"Oh, they're having their own fun," Fuji winked and giggled, while Toshiro's gag reflex kicked in at the thought of this. "They've been slightly more lovey-dovey since that incident with Mamoru…. Guess it worked out for someone at least, right?"

"….My brother's a good man," Toshiro noted her solemn expression, and smiled, lifting up her chin and continuing. "He's loved you for years, too. And he loves Saiyuri."

"And I love him," Fuji answered, ending this with a giggle. "Sounds weird, huh? I'm saying something like that, and I actually mean it."

"You guys will do great…. You don't mind me playing video games, and he doesn't mind you shopping."

"Oh, I mind… I just find other things for us to do," Fuji giggled. "You know, Yukiko-chan could take a few pointers from us!"

"….That's disgusting, Fuji…" Toshiro bent over, zipping up his suitcase, and setting it on the ground. He fished into the closet, pulling out a large straw hat, and turned back around to Fuji as he placed this on his head.

He was quiet surprised when Fuji approached him, placed her hands upon his shoulders, and leaned against him as she lifted onto her tip-toes, and kissed him, breaking away and leaving him confused and crimson-faced.

"You're one of the few non-relatives I've never kissed. I just wanted to try that out before I got married," Fuji answered with a wink, and then concentrated upon the bed, hopping over to it and plopping down in the middle. "Now I'm guessing you already have a plan?"

"I talked to Max Zenigata… He's going to help me as soon as Leo gets back from Tucson."

"Tucson? …So he found out," Fuji sighed, and glanced at her red heels. "…That means I'll have to get back, too…."

"…Why do I have the feeling you're always one step ahead of all of us?" Toshiro inquired as he took a seat beside Fuji.

"Let's just say I have much to be jealous of when it comes to my brother and family matters," Fuji answered with a chuckle. "Some people struggle and struggle just to get a little bit in life…. With others of us, the cup runneth over."

"Heh, you're starting to sound like my sister. C'mon, let's go… We're going to meet Max in Paris, and go from there."

Fuji nodded and watched Toshiro stand, then hold out his hand, and she took his hand gratefully, and both exited the bedroom, with the samurai's luggage in tow.

???????, China:

"Damn it!" Yukiko snarled, and slammed down the receiver again.

"No calls going through yet?"

"No," she moaned, and looked over her shoulder to Sam.

"You could try e-mailing them…."

"In China? It'd be too sluggish a connection… Plus…. I can't use a computer," Yukiko admitted sheepishly, and stood. "I say tomorrow we get some tickets and take the first flight to Tokyo."

"What do we do until then? What if those guys come back?"

"Then I just kick their asses… Or you do," Yukiko fell back onto the bed and stared upward at the ceiling, quickly turning over as she remembered the presence of the mirror.

"I'm not that great…. I couldn't even win a fight against a great-grandmother!"

"Sure you could…" Yukiko wasn't sure when she had become a cheerleader for Sam, but feigning interest was much better than dealing with a weeping grown man.

"No, I couldn't. I really did loose a fight again a great-grandmother," Sam sighed, and stood, removing his jacket and then walking to the closet and pulling out the extra pillow and sheets. "I'm an embarrassment to my family name…. To both my father, and my aunt."

"Who was your father?" Yukiko inquired, not really caring and closing her eyes. Hopefully, sleep would come soon.

"Ummm… Officer Melon…" Sam answered with a blush.

"….That hothead who was partners with Zenigata for about eight months?!" Yukiko choked, turning around and opening her eyes widely. "He was… Like one of the only guys who came close to catching Lupin! Other than Old Man Zenigata… Hell, I'd say he got a little closer!"

"I know, okay? I know!" Sam grumbled, unfolding the white sheets and fluffing the pillow. "And I'm just a screw up, okay? I get it…"

"….You know, when I was a kid, I almost shot my dad?"

"For real?"

"I didn't want him to kill a deer," Yukiko answered with a sigh. "I was a real sap then. Listen, we've got to get to bed now. I'm gonna see if anyone'll have their phones working tomorrow, and then we'll be out of here. And if you promise not to do anything to me in my sleep, I'll let you share the bed."

"Aw, that's sweet, but you don't have to…." Sam answered with a smile as he sunk down in the sheets.

"No, I'd feel like crap if I didn't. I just saw a huge spider on the arm," Yukiko replied, sitting up and watching Same struggled out off of the couch, only to end up in a fight with his bedsheet, and then tumble to the ground with a thud! right onto the red and golden carpeting.

He righted himself up, only to take another step and fall back down onto the carpet, and Yukiko chuckle.

"You're an idiot… But you're nice from coming from a family of cops," Yukiko admitted. "Get some sleep now, kid… We've got a long day tomorrow. And that's just if no one kills us."

"…Thanks, Yukiko…" Sam yawned and laid back on the bed, shutting his eyes and lightly beginning to snore moments afterward.

"Yeah, g'night," Yukiko muttered, reaching over and shutting off the light, and also falling asleep after about an hour's worth of restless thought.


	12. Hong Kong Fireworks

DISCLAIMER: Don't own it, but I am seriously considering purchasing some tropical fish to go with my ninety-million pets, heh.

Hey

What better a time to write, when walking outside is like walking into one of those rotating ovens you see the baked chickens rotate around in the grocery store, ugh. Along with sleep deprivation summer's been a real blast XD. Anyhow, as always, thanks for your readership, and I hope everyone is managing to stay cool over the summer, too. Please review, give me input, output, whatnot. I appreciate it all; warms and the cockles of my heart and whatnot. And don't ask me what 'cockles' are, exactly, because I have no clue, myself. Well, maybe warm isn't a good thing right now. Hrm… Maybe do the 'cool' thing and review… Hahaha… O-kay, I'm gonna go work on my next chapter now. Promise.

Fun Fact of Boredom: _Jojo__ left his home in __Tucson__Arizona__…_ Hehe, I'm still a big enough nerd to make Beatles references.

Chapter Twelve: Hong Kong Fireworks

Tucson:

"…This is the first time I've felt like a bad guy in a long time," Leo muttered to himself as he heard the loud exchange between Faye and her adoptive father through the front door. He was reassuring her that it was only for the summer; she was shouting that she already had things to do during the summer, like practice, dances, parties. Leo knew he couldn't guarantee any of that; Dako and Jared took care of most of their schooling through online work, and what they didn't do online either he or a usually very-confused Max helped to provide the answers. Well, it was more of a matter of him looking up the answers and Max making snacks, in most instances. He was a good domestic, Leo thought with the hint of a smile.

"Faye, you're going, and that's final!" he snapped, and made Leo give a shudder. If he had known it would have been such an issue, he would've had Fuji steal her, as much as he hated to think about reverting back to that old trick.

"You just want to get rid of me!" Faye snarled back at her father. "If I'm leaving for the summer, why am I packin' so much of my stuff?!"

Leo heard a slam, followed by another, indistinguishable noise, and afterward Faye fell silent, and the door opened to her surrounded by her luggage and looking down at her sneakers. Leo went to question Faye's 'father', but was quickly pushed out of the way by the man, who walked down to Leo's rental car and swung open the back seat, and stacked several boxes back there, and then turned about, heading back to the house and taking more boxes.

"You… You'll have a great time in France," Leo reassured her as she passed him, a rolling backpack in tow. Faye only looked back at him with a glare, and Leo cleared his throat as she skulked down to the rental. "Ohhhh boy…." He heaved a breath and then followed her down, getting stopped by her father along the way to the car.

"If she starts acting up…. Remember she's your issue to deal with now, not mine," he said in a low, even voice to Leo. "Truth be told, it's my wife that wanted her. So don't go calling here for any advice, 'cause you ain't gonna get it, son."

"After three other kids, I'll be just fine," Leo answered through a fake smile that in reality was his clenched teeth. He had broken three caps while in similar situations, and he thought he felt a forth crack as he stood there.

He looked back to Faye, who had turned the radio up and sat back with a frown heavy upon her face, and then to Leo, "Heh, good luck with that. I'll send the rest of her things through the mail."

"Thanks… I think…." Leo answered, and headed back to his rental car. He slid into the front seat and smiled at Faye, who only rolled her eyes at him and watched her home quickly vanish through the tinted windows of the Lexus, and noticed Leo looking in his rearview at her. "So…. I'll bet you'll like it at my place…. It's really big, and you'll have people to play with…."

"I'm eleven. I don't play," Faye answered as she rested her head against the same window she had been looking out of. "So… You're my real dad?"

"…Yeah…" Leo answered, tilting his head down a bit and flushing lightly. "How'd you know, your father tell you?"

"It was either that or you were someone out to get my dad…"

"What, did you guys have to do that before?"

"Mm-hm… We moved from Texas two years ago 'cause of that…" Faye answered. "….Did you ever have any other kids?"

"Yeah, three… Hopefully another one, too," Leo admitted. He watched Faye's surprised expression, and gave his own nervous chuckle. _'And wait until you meet your **other** dad….' _he thought with a wave of apprehension.

China:

Yukiko rolled over in the bed and opened her eyes at the sound of an alarm clock she had not remembered setting and stretched, not yet looking around the hotel room but regretting as soon as she did so. Sam was absent from the bed, as were his jacket and shoes vanished from their place on the couch. She quickly pulled the bedsheets around herself as she noticed she was not alone in the room. She could not make out the figure exact, except for the fact that he was dressed in all black and also wore white gloves in addition to his blurry suit.

"You might want to put on your glasses," he instructed, nodding to the dresser. Yukiko reached over, grabbing her glasses then putting them on, and now got a better look at the man. He was older, Chinese, and less than friendly-looking. Yukiko went to move from the bed, but soon had a gun pointed at her; an illegal Brazilian gun with a silencer.

"What'd you do with Sam?" Yukiko snarled.

"Your friend is with us… With the nice man you both met last night, to be more precise. You're free to go," he shrugged, and rose. "We have what we need. You're of no use to us."

"Listen—"

"Chang. Chang Lin Gong," he nodded. "You have a good time in Hong Kong, Miss Jigen."

"It's Ms. Ishikawa!" Yukiko growled. Chang only gave her a grin, and exited the hotel room silently. "Bastard…." she reached into her dresser, and pulled out her gun, just in time to hear the hotel door creak open. Max came to a dead halt, causing Fuji to trip over his crutch and Toshiro to reach forward and pulled her back onto her heels, and Yukiko fell back against her pillow.

"Don't go scaring me like that!" Yukiko shouted. "What the hell are you guys doing here!?"

"Saving you!" Toshiro answered, pushing the other two out of the way and rushing over to her. "Ryo's in the car! Where've you been?!"

"Um, bum frig China," Yukiko answered, blinking.

"You're wrong, but you're right… You're in Hong Kong, dear," Fuji answered, and also walked into the hotel room. "Soooo who was that guy that left just now?"

"Crap! Sam!" Yukiko yelped, rushing out of bed and running to the door. "We've gotta stop that guy, he's got Sam!"

"Wait, who's Sam?" Fuji spun about just as quickly as Yukiko made a run for the door.

"She's starting to sound like you," Max snorted.

"He's my friend, and he's in a lot of trouble, with his luck!" Yukiko shouted as she saw Toshiro run up beside her down the hallway.

"You've been with a friend this whole time?!" Toshiro choked as both slammed into the back wall of the now-opened elevator. The maid, who also occupied the space, looked over the two for a moment, and leisurely attempted to exit the elevator, and was just in time to be pushed back by a bounding Fuji, who was followed by a struggling Max.

"Wait—Your friend's a guy?!" Toshiro realized after the dazed cleaning woman hobbled out, her supplies trailing her path out of the hallway. "And you were in a hotel room with him…"

"It wasn't like that, trust me," Yukiko replied, adjusting her fedora and leaning against the wall of the elevator. "Can't this damn thing go any faster?!"

"Yukiko-chan must really like him," Fuji muttered to Max, who nodded and reached in his pocket for his cell phone.

"Well, Leo's home," he announced quietly, and shoved the phone back in his pocket. "I might be bunking with relatives for a while…"

"He's just this kid I met! He's twenty-four, for God's sakes!" Yukiko huffed, and the ever-headed towards forty Toshiro's teeth clenched, and he looked to the ground. "What, you can't have female friends?!"

"Bing! Premiere Etage!" Fuji announced, hoping out of the elevator and onto the marble floor. "Where to now?"

"The car would be a nice start, genius," Max muttered, and Fuji nodded, hopping onto a passing luggage cart and pointing to the direction of the large glass doors.

"Onward, bus boy!" Fuji bellowed, much to the embarrassment of all left in the elevator.

"There's gonna be an aluminum crutch up your ass if you don't stop it now!" Max hissed, reaching up and pulling her down. "I swear, we need a bell for you!"

"Don't think I'm going to be nice just because I'm on your dime, Fuji," Max said with a glare. "I've got a job after this that just wreaks of you… Apparently a bunch of old Yazuka women and wives are getting angry that someone's been breaking into their bank accounts, and most of them can be traced back to a Host Club… There something you want to confess, Lupin?"

"Well, I spat in a baptismal font once…. But that's not the kind of confession you were looking for, is it, Zenigata?" Fuji replied with a wink.

"If you two don't shut up, you're both gonna find a quick way to an early grave!" Yukiko shouted angrily, and hopped into the back seat of the Romeo.

"Honey… Okay, calm down… No, I promise I'll be home soon!" Ryo waved to Yukiko briefly and then turned her attention back to her cell phone call. "Well, I'm sorry you guys aren't getting along… You think you might try to play cards with her? You threw it down the window… Vick, I've got to go work now, but I'll call you back soon… Love you, too… No, love you more… Hehe, I am…." she now noticed the four disgusted looks she had drawn, and shut her phone without taking her eyes off of them. "Oh, what? Like you guys don't have the same conversations…."

"Pet names are strictly banned from my marriage," Max answered as he climbed into the front seat beside Ryo.

"She calls me a bastard," Toshiro answered, nodding to Yukiko. "But that's as close as we get, really…"

"Ryo, floor it," said Yukiko with a nod toward the street, and Ryo placed her arm across the length of the front seat.

"Where to?"

"I…" Yukiko blinked, and sat back against her seat. "….I don't know…."

"Well, fun start we're off to," Max sighed.

"….Yukiko-chan, where's your belt?" Fuji inquired as she noted the gunwoman's usually black leather article of clothing had seemingly transformed into a brown snakeskin belt.

"Crap…. I must've accidentally switched with that little idiot…"

"We're gonna have to talk about this guy later…." Toshiro said as he eyed Yukiko.

"For the last time, nothing happened!" Yukiko cried, clearly frustrated. "Jeeze, I wouldn't get jealous if you had dinner with Fuji, and she's the biggest whore I know!"

"Any other time, I'd be offended, Yukiko-chan," Fuji responded as she began to search through her purse.

"What the heck are you looking for, anyway?"

"The tracking device I use to find all of you," Fuji replied without even faltering as she said so. "Two of my greatest friends are longitude and latitude."

"Heh, I'm glad I know to look for that now… It'll be a huge help tracking all of you down when I have to work against you," Max said with a determined smile.

"That I doubt, Zenigata…" Fuji answered, pulling out a circular disk and watching Max groan.

"What the hell are you doing with birth control, Fuji?"

"…Hell, I barely have anything you could call a uterus anymore, so what's the point of having these?" Fuji slid it open, and much to the surprise of all it shown a screen, with flashing blips upon certain areas.

"See, this is us," Fuji explained, pointing to a flashing blob at the bottom left of the circular screen. "Anddd this is you, Yukiko-chan!"

"You put a bug on me!?"

"Heh, how do you think we found you the first time, Detective Zenigata?" Fuji pointed to Max, who snorted at this and looked away. "Oh, it's okay, Blondie… Every great duo needs a Jerry Lewis!"

"Let's get one thing straight—I'm the straight man," Max said sternly, and then held up a finger to Fuji. "Do not go there…"

"So, where is he?" Yukiko asked intently, leaning in to look at the tracker.

"Ummmm… Can anyone read a map?" Fuji asked, twitching a smirk.

"You're friggin' kidding me…" Yukiko groaned and slapped her forehead.

"Give me that!" Max grabbed the tracker and studied the screen for a moment, "Take a right up at this next traffic light, Ryo."

"On it," she nodded, and Fuji gave a look for mild surprise.

"Where'd you learn to read maps so well, Zenigata?"

"I was a Boy Scout when I was a kid… And again, do not go there."

"You really take the fun out of field trips, Blondie," Fuji heaved a sigh and sat against the leather seat. "Hrm, what's this…. My phone's going off… Hello?"

"Um… Fuji…."

"Ally-chan!" Fuji squealed at the recognition of the gravely voice. "How's working under Heiji, urm, working for you?"

"I…. We're kinda on a flight for Hong Kong…."

"Why? What happened?"

"Heiji's no natural leader, Fuji. The Yakuza…. They kinda… Yeah, they came outta nowhere," Ally cleared his throat. "We're in Chinese airspace now. We've got everyone here."

"That's good… Ally-chan, what aren't you telling me?" Fuji asked suspiciously, alerted at the hesitant tone in Ally's voice.

"They…. Burnt the place to the ground…" Ally answered, and Fuji's mouth twitched. "…Fuji? Fuji?"

She slapped the phone shut, and faked a smile as she turned her attention back to Toshiro and Yukiko, "So! Let's find this competition of Toshiro's and kick some bad guys' asses! Maybe I can even make a buck out of this somehow…"

"He's not any competition! Please, he's only a kid!"

"I'm sure Mia Farrow thought that about Sun Yi, too," Max snorted, and paid no heed to the glares this drew from the others.

"This is it! Stop here, Ryo-san!" Fuji ordered, slapping Ryo roughly on the shoulder as they came to a large mansion. Fuji gave a whistle at the sight and immediately began to assess the yard and home for anything valuable, and Ryo had not even stopped the car completely before Yukiko hopped out and made a run for the gate.

"Oh, yeah, she's into this guy," Fuji chuckled, and Toshiro grit his teeth as he, too, exited the car. "She usually doesn't run that fast unless it's for Saiyuri or Happy Hour!"

"Fuji," Ryo snapped upon reading Toshiro's expression, "Shut up!"

"I—Ohhhh…. Sorry, Toshiro-chan…." Fuji adjusted her jacket, and stepped out of the car. "Well, are you guys ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Toshiro answered sternly, heading to where Yukiko stayed hidden.

"Ohhhh… Game face! Okay, Zenigata-san, you stay here and man the car, okay?"

"If I didn't know you were just watching out for me I'd go off on you for that comment, but I'll keep in contact with you guys, in case something goes wrong," Max answered, tossing Fuji a walkie-talkie.

"Wow…. Are we on _Miami Vice_?" Fuji chuckled as she held the bulky technology but placed it in her jacket pocket as Max glared at her, clearly unamused. "We'll be fine, Max."

"Yeah, because if something happens to him, you know it'll be Ari on your ass, Fuji," Ryo loaded her gun and the two women walked over to the samurai and the gunman, leaving Max in the car with his crutch and his walkie-talkie.

"Okay, let's see now…" Fuji began to walk about the perimeter of the walls. "We could always use plan G-78…"

"Or you could shoot out the camera and climb the lattice work that's on the wall," Ryo sighed as she watched Yukiko do exactly this. A white hat could be seen disappearing over the red brick, and Toshiro gaped, and was soon to follow her.

"If her middle name wasn't Maria I'd swear it was idiot…"

"That's a laugh, Fuji; you calling someone impulsive. Well, shall we?"

Fuji nodded, and jumped onto Ryo's back, climbing onto the offguard driver's shoulders and lunging over the brick wall, only to crash into Toshiro as she made a landing on the other side.

"We should!" Fuji called from the other side.

"They're gonna get the security out here… Unless they want us to come in… Hrm…"

Fuji waited for Ryo to attempt the same feat, only to jump in surprise as the Jigen girl tapped her on the shoulder, "Ryo-san! How'd you get over here?! Doraemon-like magic? Did Heiji make you something?" she inquired with a tinge of jealousy.

"I used the gate. It was open," Ryo answered bluntly.

"Oh," Fuji blinked. "Well…. I knew that! I was just testing you!"

"Sure you were, Fuji," Ryo sighed, and loaded her gun. "How far away are we?"

"Not too far…" Fuji muttered, looking down at the screen of her tracking device.

"Not too far at all," they heard, and on instinct alone, both Yukiko and Toshiro drew their weapons, and stood in front of Ryo and Fuji protectively.

"Still got it," Toshiro said out of the side of his mouth to Yukiko.

"Never lost it," Yukiko answered, and surveyed the gang of near-identical thugs; all were dressed in black, and all held automatic weapons, and all were pointed at the small group.

"Ms. Ishikawa," Chang emerged from the solid circle of stoic lackeys, and smiled as he surveyed the sight. "I see you're back with company…."

"God, I pissed so pissed at the cliché sayings you mob bosses use… It's all the friggin' same!" Yukiko snapped, clearly ignoring the wide-eyed frantic looks of her friends.

"Well, sometimes expected is good… You see, you'd expect me to tell my men to lower their firearms… And then we'd go into my mansion, have an altercation, more than likely, and more than likely I would end up at another loss…"

"Another?" Fuji caught onto this word quickly, and looked to Yukiko, whose face did not even register this cryptic phrase.

"But, you know… The unexpected would be for me to shoot you dead right here, and end it all," Chang continued. "Or shoot at least your boyfriend… Husband…. Whoever it is you took to bed over the years."

"Yuki, don't do anything stupid," Ryo whispered as she could see Yukiko shake with anger as Chang grew closer to her.

"….Drop your weapons," Chang said after some calculated thought. "I need them inside."

"You can tell us the plan any time, Fuji," Ryo whispered as their weapons were ripped away from them and they were led into the red Chinese-styled Chang mansion.

"Could I interest you in something to drink?" Chang asked as they were seated on a low table in the living room, Yukiko sitting across from Toshiro and Ryo across from Fuji.

"Nah, I'm on a low-poison diet… It's bad for my cholesterol… And my life," Fuji answered with an apologetic smile.

"Lupin the Fourth…. An ever-present reminder to our failing criminal justice system. I must admit, I'm a fan," Chang said with a smirk as he seated himself a good ways away from the table, at an ornate chair opposite of the front door. Along with expensive vases, an armed guard stood at each side of him as he reclined back. "And Mr. Ishikawa… I saw you in _The Producers _last summer… Personally, I think you're a bit overrated. I hold nothing against any of you here…. Except for Yukiko, of course."

"What the hell did I ever do to you?" Yukiko snapped.

"Oh, Ms. Jigen—"

"Ishikawa!" Yukiko snapped, much to Toshiro's surprise.

"Whatever your name, you're still the White Devil of Spain. That's where we met, if you recall. You were much younger then, though," Chang leaned forward, and spoke in a low voice. Yukiko grew startled suddenly, as if it had suddenly clicked with her. "Yes… You remember now… Of course, I didn't look like this at the time… It's amazing how much your facial features change when you're shot close-range in the face with a Magnum."

"How… How did you….?"

"Survive? With help from a true talent," Chang explained with a grin. "Now, as to how I found you… You can thank your boss for that. My men had it staked out for a good two weeks."

"I didn't see any men," Ryo said with confusion.

"I said I knew a true talent, didn't I?"

"I… Ohhhhh," Fuji nodded as it dawned on her. "Toshiro, you're lookin' a little green there, pal. So, Chang, when do we get to meet this talent of yours, eh?"

"Here she is right now," Chang waved over a tiny figure hiding in the shadows of one of the corners of the house, and placed a hand on her shoulder as she stood in front of them. She wore a Chinese-styled dress; teal with gold bamboo pattern running all along it. Her red hair was too short to be put up in any style, but it was well-managed. Even through her makeup, however, it was still unmistakable.

"Sam?" Yukiko choked. "But… But I…."

"Samantha Meron. A makeup and cosmetic genius… Takes after her father like that. She built me a new face, and I thought I'd keep her around for a while," Chang explained with a proud smile.

"Yukiko, I… I'm sorry," Sam said meekly.

"Save it!" Yukiko snarled, red-faced in anger, amongst other emotions. "You can keep me, Chang, just let everyone else go."

Chang thought again for a moment, "…Well, I could make use for them. Lupin the Fourth and her thieving abilities, Mr. Ishikawa and his swordsmanship, and Mrs. Lupin for her acute driving skills. I always wanted to learn stick shift. You're asking me to give up quite a lot here. Especially for you."

"…Please… Let them go, and you can have me, okay?" Yukiko sighed, tilting her head downward.

"Fine. While I'm tempted, I have nothing against them. Give them their weapons, lead them out, follow them until they're a good ways away from here," Chang ordered, and his guards nodded, and approached the three.

"No way!" Toshiro snapped, and began to push away the bodyguards. In the end, he met his match with the butt of a gun, and slumped down into the arms of a duo of guards.

"Fuji, you come back for me, I'll shoot at you, too," Yukiko shouted as the two women were led out behind the men carrying Toshiro.

"Then I'll just get a better bullet-proof vest—But I'm no leaving you, Yukiko-chan! No man, woman, or treasure left behind!" Fuji called back as she was pushed out of the house.

"I always thought, out of all of Lupin's children, that she was the stupidest," Chang said with a sigh, and stood. "Well, now what to do with you…. I think I'll have to entertain the possibilities now that I have you… But I can guarantee, you're not going to like any of them…. Take them both away."

"What?! Wait!" Sam yelped. "You said if I helped you, you'd let me go!"

"And you had your opportunity to escape. It's not my fault if you didn't use it," Chang answered, and turned away from the two as they were drug off to the top floor of the mansion, and locked into a barred bedroom. Sam door a seat in one of the ornate chairs by the window, while Yukiko merely stared at a wall with an ancient Chinese wall scroll, and said nothing.

"…Yukiko?" Sam said meekly, looking up from her clasped hands to the gunwoman. "Nothing else was a lie… Just my gender."

"Point bein', you lied, sweetheart," Yukiko replied, and now began to search the walls, occasionally tapping one and listening.

"What are you doing?" Sam inquired, rising from her seat and taking a step forward.

"Feeling for the studs," Yukiko replied, and continued to tap. She remained concentrated on this until the noise of sobbing could not be ignored, and she rose from her crouched position and turned around. "No more friggin' crocodile tears."

"They're not!" Sam yelled, wiping her eyes. "And I'm not crying, anyway!"

"Yes, you are," Yukiko folded her arms. "Heh, if you're trying to pull the pity card, forget it. I don't forgive liars."

"I didn't even want to! I was afraid for my life!"

"…You could've told me," Yukiko sighed with defeat, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "I could've helped. Well, maybe not me, but Fuji, at least."

"Get help from a Lupin? Jeeze, that's something I would've done if I had really wanted to tarnish my family's legacy," Same sniffed. "God… I don't even like dresses!"

Yukiko gave a small smirk, "Guess that's something we've got in common. Listen, if you always go with your pride, it's all you're gonna be left with after a while. Trust me, I learned that one the hard way."

"So what do we do now?" Sam asked after a silence between the two.

"Well, we think of a way out of here," Yukiko answered, standing and looking around the room. "How'd a nice girl like you get together with Chang, anyway?"

"Nice? I thought you hated me."

"I hate lies, especially when they're done so well," Yukiko twisted the doorknob and found it locked, and bent down, removing her fedora and pulling out a tiny rod.

"I needed the money. Plus, I'd mainly done work for movies, and that… A few small things in the way of government projects, but… Mr. Chang's offer was astounding. I guess I should have known it was too good to be true…."

"It's okay, we all fall for it. If we make it out of here, I'll tell you about a guy I meant in Spain once," Yukiko continued to work away at the lock, and felt Sam's eyes upon her. She turned around, and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I'm guessing you want to know how I know Chang, right?"

"Well…."

"It was years ago, I went to steal a Qin warrior statue from him, and… We got into it, I didn't wanna shoot the bastard, but he tackled me, and my finger slipped, and… Bang. Hamburger face. It was the first time I was ever involved in anything that bloody. I was even younger than you are. Hell, I wasn't even with Fuji, yet."

"You two are…. Together?"

Yukiko's pin slipped, this caused a rather large gash in the door, and her face flushed red, "No. I'm proud to say I'm one of the few people who hasn't been with Fuji."

" Oh. I just thought you might…."

"I dress like this because it's practical, and I see what Fuji wears and exactly how seriously she gets taken because of it. And trust me, I don't think Al Capone would've gotten as much respect as he had if he had worn a friggin' denim jacket."

Sam gave a chuckle, and sat down next to Yukiko, "Do you need help with that?"

"Well, if it looks like anyone's gonna attack me, you give me the heads up, okay?"

"That, I can manage," Sam answered. "….Yukiko?"

"Ya know, man or woman, you're equally annoying," Yukiko sighed, setting her tools down. "What now?"

"Do you think we could be friends after all this?"

"Yeah, sure. We'll do one another's hair, we can get our nails done, you can sit for my kid. We'll even gossip about boys," Yukiko answered vaguely as she went back to work on the lock.

"That's good… Because I really like you," Sam said with a smile.

"Yeah, I…" then Yukiko stopped in mid-sentence, and glanced at Sam. _'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, boy….'_

"Hrm?"

"You're not bad either… For a whiner, that is," Yukiko answered in her usual gruff manner. "Almost got it…."

"Good! Then we can get out of here and—" Sam yelped as the door swung open, and Yukiko flew back from the force.

Chang looked over the scene; the fedora on the floor, the small tools spread out, and the two women looking up at him; one with contempt, and the other with fear, "Good to know you haven't been bored. Well, Ms. Ishikawa…. You've had your playtime, now it's mine."

About thirty miles away:

"Now what?" Ryo poked at the fired and tilted her head down as she sat on a cooler from the car, Max beside her atop a crate of weapons.

"I wish I knew… I'm trying to get ahold of Leo, but that's proving friggin' impossible," Max sighed, exasperated, and looked to the worried Ryo. "….Fuji will get your sister back. She's a lot of things, mainly a tramp, a thief, and a crook, but she's also good on her word."

"You almost sound like you're defending her, Max."

"Don't get the wrong impression… She just keeps business steady, is all."

"Just five more minutes, Toshiro-chan!" Fuji begged as the samurai fastened his swords to his back and pulled up the black mask over his mouth. He worked at tying back his hair after this, and continued to ignore Fuji's pleas. "Our backup will be here, and we'll get Yukiko, and everything will be just fine!"

"I did solo jobs for years, Fuji," Toshiro made small adjustments to his ninja attire as he said this, and took count of what weapons he had on him, ready for use if need-be. "I do these group gigs for the money, mainly. You know that."

"Toshiro," Ryo turned around, and looked at the samurai sternly. "If something happens to both you and Yukiko, think about which family member Saiyuri would go to. Think about it. She could end up calling Victor 'dad'."

"….All right. I'll wait. But for five more minutes, only."

"Looks like we don't even need that!" Fuji replied happily as she watched a set of headlights eased down the hill of the rural farming area. The horn blared, and Fuji waved down the Chrysler.

Ally hopped out of the backseat with Odori, while Jordan climbed out of the driver's side and Heiji out of the passenger side.

"So it's in New Zealand?" Heiji muttered.

"Yeah, next month," Jordan answered. "If you bring your board, I'll bet you could still sign up!"

"Yo, could you two surfer nerds stop making out and get over here?" Ally snapped as he stood by the fire beside Fuji. "Carmen's at Toshiro's mom's place with the kids."

"Good, we wouldn't want Chang to have anything else he could use against us," Ryo helped Max to stand and they formed a circle, with Fuji the obvious lead.

"You're in your Rat Clan outfit," Odori commented as she stood next to Toshiro. "Should I ask?"

"Eh, let's get one of yours famous guesses, Dori…"

"I say you went to go get Yukiko yourself, and then someone, more than likely Fuji, helped you to realized that if something were to happen to the both of you that she would either go to myself, Heiji, Ryoko, or Ally. That's just my guess, though."

"…You should really look into being a detective, Dori," Toshiro said with a sigh and a shake of his head.

"Okay, Fuji, what's the plan?" Jordan asked, and then blinked as he looked across the fire. "And what's Max doing here?"

"I'm hiking. It's for my therapy."

"Which kind?" Heiji snorted.

"Woah, woah!" Fuji quickly hopped in between Max and Heiji as Max moved toward Heiji, and held out her hands to block both men. "Enough with the quips for the night, guys. If you wanna duke it out, try rock, paper, scissors. Just… We need to work as one if we're going to get this plan off the ground."

"What's the plan?" asked Ryo, who then read Fuji's face. "…You have no freakin' idea, do you?"

"Well… It's not the first time I'll have winged it!" Fuji waved over to them, and she hurried to her car. "Ryo-san, do you know where I could find another new Alfa Romeo?"

"What's so wrong with this one?" Ryo inquired, hopping into the driver's side.

"I just got a flash of genius, is all," Fuji replied with a smile.

"You're going to kill my car," Ryo moaned.

"It's either that or Chang gets ahold of your sister. Ally-chan, Toshiro-chan, you ride with Ryo-san and me. Jordan, you, Dori-chan, Zenigata, and Heiji-chan take the Chrysler. I have a walkie-talkie, and Zenigata has the other one."

"You still use a walkie-talkie?" Heiji snorted.

"You want to start something?!" Max snapped as he hobbled to the Chrysler. "I'll stick this crutch right up your—"

"You guys behave, or we'll turn this car around," Jordan said, mildly chiding the two as they climbed into the back seat.

"If you don't use a walkie-talkie, what the heck do you use to communicate, wise ass?" Max countered as he pulled out the bulky device from his coat pocket.

"Um, hello," Heiji tapped the small bud in his left ear. "This is what people this century like to use."

"My sister should've just traded you for Odori," Max mumbled darkly as the car started up behind Fuji. "I don't need this, between Leo in Arizona, now this crap."

"What's Leo doing in Arizona?" Jordan inquired. "One of those… Pride things?..."

"What makes you think we go to those?"

"Just asking!" Jordan answered. "I don't know how the gay thing works, all right?"

"Gay _thing_?"

"Everyone! Silence!" Odori yelled suddenly, before Jordan could answer. "The next man to say anything receives a meeting with my blade, and I guarantee he will lose something precious!"

There was a period of silence in the car, followed by Heiji's uttering, "If it's Max, you must mean his crutch, 'cause I couldn't imagine him using anything else more than that, really."

Jordan calmly grabbed hold of the back of Dori's pants as she lunged over the seat for Heiji, and continued to drive like this all the way down the road.

"Max, can you hear me?" Fuji's crackling voice came over his walkie-talkie suddenly, and at this Odori seated herself once more.

"Yeah, we can. Please tell me you have a plan, Fuji," Max asked, clearly begging for her to come up with a solution.

"Yup!" Fuji answered cheerfully. "Ally-chan just finished setting up the explosives, so you guys meet us around the back and don't come in sight until you see a big boom! We're gonna have a party in here tonight!"

"…Your sister is a lunatic," Odori said with a sigh.

"Yeah, but it's a better plan than any of us came up with… So I guess we have to go with it," Jordan said with defeat, and turned as Ryo's car did so.


	13. Venus and Mars

DISCLAIMER: Yeah, I know you get the point now, but I've had this format for five years now… So sue me… Or, rather, don't. That's why I still have these.

A big hello from sunny Cambodia!

Okay, so, not really. I'm in the same place I always am. Same time, same place, different day and pants. And that's an injoke, by the way; not like the person at the other end of that joke reads this… But alas. What was the excuse for not writing this time? Bronchitis. I was on four meds and was in bed for three weeks. Three of the four aforementioned medications caused me to sleep. I wasn't very productive, but I sure as hell had some nice dreams. I actually just drove for the first time in nearly a month today. So blame the virus that infected my bronchi, not me, for this one.

Fun Fact of Boredom: If you have a Myspace, and want to search for a person, look for 'Fujiko Lupin'. You might be a lit-tle shocked at what you find.

Chapter thirteen: Venus and Mars

"Don't you touch her!" Sam lunged forward, her target Chang, only to be knocked down by one of his bodyguards.

"If I didn't need your work, I'd shoot you right here," Chang said to her coldly, and then a smile came across his face. "…Come to think of it, you're going to be quite useful to me now."

"If you do anything else to her, I swear I'll blow of more than your face this time, Chang," Yukiko said with stern warning.

"Miss Meron…. You went through so much hard work getting Ms. Ishikawa here… Why don't I give you the final honors? It only seems deserving…"

"What?" Sam choked. "N-no! I can't do that!"

"Oh, come on now… You can do anything you put your mind to," a tall lackey came and stood on either side of Sam, with one propping her up and the other placing a pistol in her hand.

"You moron. What makes you think she wouldn't shoot you?" Yukiko snorted.

"Because she won't," Chang replied with a smirk. "Now Sam… Be a good girl, will you? Take care of this problem quickly… I have a dinner date to keep."

"Sam, don't!" Yukiko shouted. "He's just gonna kill you when he's done with me! He's a user, Sam."

"I… I don't want to do this!" Sam yelled.

Chang nodded to the lackey, and the man raised Sam's hand up, and a shot was fired seconds later. Fortunately, all that went flying was a white fedora, with a single bullet hole through the center of it. In another corner of the room there lay Sam on the ground, having been hit with the butt of the gun after attempting to pull the gun out of the lackey's hand.

"Little brat…" Chang growled, and began to reach over to gun, only to hear his cell phone go off; even with the distance between them, Yukiko could tell the phone call was panicked, rushed, and she heard the distinct sound of a series of crashes. Chang slammed his phone shut, and jerked his head in Yukiko's direction. Yukiko only had a moment to be curious before there was a sound of creaking and moaning from beneath all in the room. In a split second, Yukiko had hold of Sam, and in another few seconds, the two were on a short ride down to the first story, thanks to the beamwork that had been destroyed by the duo of cars that had gone plowing straight through the house.

Yukiko landed on her back roughly, with Sam on top of her, and quickly rolled over with the girl beneath her, just in time to take the falling debris.

"Yukiko!" Sam shrieked after she had overcome the shock, and began to shake the older woman back into consciousness.

"I want the _Powerpuff Girls_ bed sheets, Daddy…." Yukiko muttered incoherently.

"Wake up, Yukiko!" Sam begged frantically, now shaking the gunwoman harder.

"Ow! Ow! I'm awake!" Yukiko moaned, and rolled back onto her back. "Owie…. Still not as painful as childbirth. But close."

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better… Coulda sworn I saw my gang plow through here with a car, though…"

"Actually, it was two cars," Sam answered meekly.

"My boss is insane, I mentioned this, right?" Yukiko began to stand uneasily, and Sam helped her friend to rise. "Ow! Okay, looks like a bruised rib… Possibly broken… At least I've got two less than a guy, right?"

"Right," Sam nodded and smiled as they began to stumble through the wreckage and toward the gaping hole in what once had been Chang's prestigious home.

"Hey, we're still one for that match, right?"

"Definitely!" Sam answered brightly. This expression quickly changed, however, when a tall, angry, determined samurai came bounding through the same hole that the women were attempting to escape through, both swords drawn.

"What's he--?" but Yukiko's question was quickly met with the sound of bullets clanging against metal, and Toshiro stood inbetween the two and a bloodied, battered Chang, who stood there with Yukiko's pistol in his hand.

"You still protect that bitch?!" Chang growled, and Toshiro's grip on his swords only tightened. "Then you'll only die, too!"

"I don't have time for banter today," Toshiro growled. "Now I suggest you bring it on, or else I'll go on ahead and kick your ass right here, right now."

"If I don't kill you now, that woman will kill you later," Chang growled. "Look what she did to _me_!" and with this, Chang ripped off the already loosely-hanging mask from the left side of his face. Sam turned her head away quickly, and Toshiro did the same. Chang without his makeup made the _Phantom of the Opera_ tame.

"Mark my words… If you stay with that witch, you might not end up just like me…. But she will destroy you," Chang hissed, and drew back his gun once again.

"She already tried that," Toshiro answered. "I kept coming back. I guess I like the pain."

"You've damned yourself, then," Chang muttered, just before Toshiro went for his final attack.

"Wait!" Yukiko yelled. "Don't! He ain't worth it!"

Toshiro was listening to this while his longer sword was only an inch or two away from Chang's neck. His eyes traveled back to Yukiko, and for a few more moments he remained perfectly still, before standing back while Chang still had his gun.

"Idiot," Chang laughed, and aimed right for the samurai. "Idiot!" he went to fire, but before he could even press down on the trigger, the gun slid apart, thanks to some quick swordwork by Toshiro.

"I'm giving you a chance, Chang… To leave us alone, and leave her alone, too," Yukiko called. "Now… I'm going home with my friend, and my family. You hurt any of us, and you won't have any hands to shoot with, I'll make sure of that."

Chang only nodded, and smirked, "Good game, Yukiko Ishikawa."

Yukiko tipped her fedora and she and Sam turned around to leave, and moments later they heard a shot fire, and then the sound of two clean pieces of metal slicing, and a grunt from a man. Sam went to turn back around, but Yukiko shielded her friend's face, and found it hard not to vomit at the grisly site. Toshiro flicked the blood off of both of his swords, and sheathed them once more without his expression changing.

"He had another gun," Toshiro explained.

"They always do," Yukiko sighed, and placed one arm around Sam's shoulders, while the other was around Toshiro, although she could not quite reach up to his shoulders.

"Yukiko-chan, you look like hell!" Fuji said with a laugh.

"Eh, you don't even want me to tell you what you look like," Yukiko replied, kicking aside some debris and breaking her hold with the two. "Did you really have to ram through the place?"

"Well, it was either that or have Ally disguise himself as a singing telegram again," Fuji replied with a shrug.

"What happened to Chang's men?" Toshiro asked, only to see Ally joyfully hogtying another once-powerful lackey while Max knocked an unruly Chang follower over the head with his dented crutch.

"Knew this thing had more purposes than I thought…" Max muttered as he adjusted the crutch and hobbled back to the car.

"Well… It looks like your family has everything under control…." Sam said quietly as Toshiro walked over to the gang and joined the wrangling and capture of Chang's men.

"Eh, not yet," Yukiko replied, lifting her fedora and turning to Sam. "I think I remember something about a match?..."

"You still want to do that? After everything…." Sam trailed off, and Yukiko nodded.

"Ah, hell, yeah! I've definitely got to show you up now!" Yukiko answered, nudging the woman in the ribs. Sam did the same, and Yukiko groaned, and doubled over, clutching onto the sore area.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Sam gasped. "Are… Are you okay!?"

"So… You worried?" Fuji asked Toshiro as she quietly watched the scene.

"…Nah," Toshiro answered after a moment's thought.

A Hong Kong dining cruise:

"So this is what you had in mind as a match?" Yukiko sighed and glanced over herself, and then at Sam, who sat at the outdoor dining table. "I thought you didn't like dresses."

"I don't," Sam answered with a chuckle as she tugged at the green knee-length bell-shaped dress and then down at her drink coyly. "But I suppose one of us had to wear a suit, right?"

"Yeah," Yukiko smirked, and cocked her fedora before taking a seat across from Sam. She had exchanged the usual white suit for a royal blue suit with a black shirt, as well as matching fedora and a white tie. In addition to this, the usually proud Yukiko had even worn her wire glasses, "I usually don't go out with your types either…."

"Redheads?" Sam chuckled, and sipped her wine. "I know that…" Sam trailed off, and her hands clutched her dress, although this was hidden beneath the linen sheet of the table. "I'm just glad I got to see you at least once more."

"Hey, now don't give me that!" Yukiko waved the waiter over and ordered another bottle and then turned her attention back to Sam. "It's not like I'm impossible to trace! I mean, c'mon, I hang out with a six and a half foot Asian guy in a bathrobe and red hair who's currently back in New York playing a gay puppet on Broadway… And I stand out pretty easy too, ya know. White's not the most inconspicuous color."

"I understand the suits… But why white? Doesn't it make you more of a target?"

"Just makes those idiots feel like even bigger fools when they lose," Yukiko poured her newly-arrived wine and smirked. "Eh, don't worry, kid… You'll meet the right… Person? Live happily ever after with some dogs and power tools…."

Sam chuckled and shook her head, "We're not all like that… Just like all you crossdressers," she added with a wink.

"Wha?" Yukiko snapped to attention, and then chuckled. "Well, ya got me there… I'm like a flunkie from the Takarazuka Revue."

"You're going back to your boyfriend?"

"Yeah… For my daughter, if nothing else… And hey, I love the big idiot, when all's said and done. Don't tell him that, though… I don't like him to get too big of an ego over it."

"Well, he's lucky…. And I'm lucky to have you as a friend…."

"You're damn right!" Yukiko smiled and pointed at Sam. "Now c'mon, you gonna pout, or am I gonna show you that my mom and dad aren't only dancing champs in the family!"

"Okay… But I'm in heels!"

"Ah, damn it… And I'm short! Eh, I'll make due," Yukiko rose from the table and motioned for Sam to join her, which the younger woman did. "Now, your hand on top of mine… You're the woman here."

"If you insist," Sam laughed lightly, and did so as the band started up. "Yuki?"

"What's up, kid?"

"I… I got you a gift," Sam said, breaking away from Yukiko and reaching beneath the table.

"You didn't have to…" Yukiko rolled her eyes and groaned. "It ain't even my birthday… Plus I don't have anything for you. It wouldn't be right."

"You saved my life… I think that's enough… Plus I probably would've died if it'd been me alone in Hong Kong."

"Well, true, but…."

"Here," Sam passed the gunwoman a shoebox-sized box, wrapped in bright blue and shining white paper, complete with a ribbon in the center. "Open it right away!"

"Okay, I'm goin', I'm goin'," Yukiko said in an annoyed tone but with a smile on her face as she ripped through the packing and then peeled the tape off of the brown cardboard box that was hidden beneath the paper. "….Jeeze…" Yukiko muttered after she had worked her way through the packing peanuts.

"I… I know it's not the exact one, but I felt bad after yours got destroyed at Chang's."

"Nah, this is really friggin' close! Better model, actually," Yukiko admitted as she looked over the Combat magnum, which she wisely kept hidden in the box from the other guests. "It's perfect."

"They looked at me kind of crazy when I told them I wasn't interested in automatic," Sam chuckled. "I got it after… After everything happened…."

"Well, you're damn good at picking gifts. I can't wait to try it out on the range when I get home!"

"Maybe I can come and visit," Sam placed a hand on Yukiko's shoulder, and Yukiko looked up, and set the box down gently, then took Sam's hands.

"I'm flattered, but it would just complicate things," Yukiko explained, and Sam nodded understandingly. "Besides, you don't want my life… I'm old, I drink, I have a kid, and… You don't wanna be a thief. It's not all the perks you'd expect. Most of my time's divided by practicing, taking care of my daughter, and confiding to my other ex boyfriend on the team."

"If it gets too much, you're always welcome in Japan."

Yukiko reached forward, and ruffled Sam's hair playfully, "Thanks, kid. I'll keep it in mind. So, are we gonna put this wine to waste, or are we gonna enjoy ourselves?"

"After all of this? Start pouring, and don't stop. Please," Sam replied with a chuckle, lifting up her glass to Yukiko.

Paris, France:

"….There're bags in my room," Dako said darkly as she met Leo on the stairs.

"I'veeeeee gotta put away my clothes, Dako," Leo said uneasily, and tried to walk past the girl. This only met with Dako's arm flying out and resting against the wall of the stairwell, blocking Leo's only exit.

"Whose luggage is that?"

"….Faye's…."

"Who's Faye?" Dako asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Listen, let me put away my things, Dako…" Leo begged with a sigh.

"Who's Faye?! Are you cheating on Dad again!?" Dako demanded.

"….How'd you….?"

"Listen, you guys can't use indoor voices to save your souls. Even Avery heard you," Dako answered plainly. "If you've got someone, you're not keeping her things in my room!"

"Dako, she… She's Jared's twin sister…." Leo muttered, his face flushing.

"His WHAT!? Oh my God, how many kids do you have?!" Dako yelped. "Didn't you ever use protection?!"

"Oh, God," Leo covered his now bright red face with his free hand, and sighed. "We're going to have a big family meeting about it later, okay? Until then, just tolerate her."

"Why can't she use the guest room?"

"Because that's my office," Leo sighed, and reached forward. "Honey, are you okay? You're more combative than usual…."

"I'm fine!" Dako slapped his hand away and stormed up the stairs away from him. "I'm fine, okay?!" she repeated, although her voice cracked as she repeated this.

"Dako?!" he shouted, and ran up the stairs after her, throwing aside his suitcases and blocking her right before she slammed the door. "What's wrong? I'm sorry I didn't tell you, all right? I just got home after a long flight…."

"I… It's not that…." Dako answered, and took a seat on the edge of her bed.

"What's wrong, then?" Leo kneeled in front of his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders. He knew he should have been looking for the still bewildered Faye, but it was worrisome to see Dako so emotional.

"You…. I just… It's…"

"That lady who I saw?" Leo brushed his hair back and sighed, and Dako gave a nod.

"I saw some letters you guys wrote… While I was working in the office," Dako wiped her eyes.

"Well, you can just throw those away," Leo answered, kissing her on the forehead. "I don't need them anymore. I have all of your to keep me busy."

"Why'd you do that, anyway?" Dako sniffed. "Didn't that hurt Dad's feelings?"

"Yeah… A lot," Leo answered, clearing his throat. "Adults are stupid sometimes… I'm just stupid a lot more than some people. I guess… I'm a lot more like my father than I like to admit."

"What, with having the ton of kids?"

"Yeahhhhhh that, and sometimes I forget other peoples' feelings. I was being selfish," Leo sighed, and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "But, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'll even quit chasing around Fuji if you want. All you kids have to do is say the word."

"No, I like you guys going away to work….. I love you, but I'd probably trip you guys down the stairs if you were home all the time," Dako chuckled.

"We'll talk more about this in a little bit. But for right now, I have to track down Faye," Leo stood and kissed her on the forehead. "Be nice to her, okay? She's not really used to… All of this…"

"She doesn't know you're gay, does she?"

"Nope," Leo admitted with a sigh. "Wish me luck."

"I would, but I already know you're sunk," Dako chuckled, and rolled over to lay down on her bed after Leo had left the room.

"Now if I were a kid, where would I be….?" Leo wondered as he looked to the left and the right of the long hallway. "Well, if it were me, I'd have been in a tree or something… I had a lot of issues even then. Faye?! Faye?! Where are you?" After hearing no answer, Leo began to grow concerned, and broke out into a run as he continued to search the innards of the house.

His search ended when he found Faye frozen in her tracks, staring at an equally stunned-silent Jared. Leo could not blame either; Jared looked just like him as a child, and if he had been a girl, he more than likely would have looked identical to Faye growing up.

"Um… Jared, I think we need to have a talk…" Leo said, clearing his throat and placing a hand on either child's shoulder. "Jared, you get Avery."

"What about Dako?" Jared asked after breaking out of his trance.

"She's not feeling well… Plus she knows, anyway," Leo answered, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Just… Everyone in the living room, 'kay?"

"Yeah," Jared nodded, and turned away back into the den to fetch Avery, only taking his eyes off of his sister at the very last minute.

"You okay?" Leo whispered, and Faye shrugged off the hands on her shoulders.

"Why'd you have to take me when you already had so many kids?" Faye asked quietly.

_'Why is it always girls who give me drama?' _Leo thought while the feeling of an oncoming headache began to creep up on him. "It's… It's complicated, Faye… But it's what your mom wanted…. Your biological mother."

"So I have a new mom now?"

"Not exactly," Leo answered, clearing his throat. "What you have is…"

"Leo?" the front door opened, and Max called out to his husband. "I'm home!"

"Why's he do that American thing of announcing whenever he leaves and/or comes home?" Leo wondered aloud as Faye only glanced to the said loud American, bisexual, Jewish/Asian handicapped man who came hurrying in with the use of his crutch.

"Honey, I'm home," Max announced with a smile. He then noted Faye and turned to face the little girl, standing beside the outwardly nervous Leo, who to himself was wondering where he had placed his inhaler. "Wow… She's like you if you'd been a girl!"

"Would've made things a lotttt easier," Leo sighed.

"Mm, yeah. We would've been able to have the wedding at my parents' place, like my mom had wanted," Max admitted.

"Wedding?" Faye wondered aloud. "Whose wedding?"

Max immediately shot a glare to Leo, who took a step back; Max could look as intimidating as old man Zenigata if he put his mind to it. He had not been the only one to take after his father, Leo realized.

"Well… You see, this is Max… He's…" Leo took in a deep breath, and shut his eyes, "He's my husband."

There was silence between the three. There was also silence from the Lupin-Zenigata children, who hid in the doorways and the stairwell of the home. All could see Faye processing this as she stood there, her eyes wide with surprise.

"He's… Your dad…. Too…" Leo continued, clearing his throat and scratching the back of his head. A few awkward moments later, Faye bolted away from the two, and out the front door.

"Why do you even make them when you can't talk to them?" Max asked with a sigh, tossing his free hand up in the air.

"I didn't know I made her, okay?! Like you could've done better!" Leo shouted as he too ran for the front door.

"I'll get her!" Jared called, nearly toppling down Leo as he zoomed past him and scaled over the white rail of the porch.

"You think he'll be able to talk to her?" Max asked Leo from the porch as the two watched Jared break off in a run after his sister.

"He's a Zenigata, too. Of course he will," Leo answered confidently. "But just in case…" he added, and jumped over the same railing.

"Showoffs," Max grumbled as he remained on the porch, Avery and Dako at either side.

'Who's she?' Avery signed up to his father.

"Our sister," Dako said aloud as she signed to the little boy.

'Papa was pregnant?!' Avery signed in wide-eyed surprise. Max and Dako saw this, and looked to one another.

'…' Dako began to sign, and shook her head, and looked up at Max. "I still have those Ken dolls if you wanna…"

"It was hard enough the first time. I'll let him find out from the TV, just like I did," Max sighed, holding up a hand in protest.

'You think next time he might have another boy?' Avery continued, openly excited at the prospect of this. 'Maybe someone like me!'

'God wouldn't send us someone as annoying as you and Jared. Not again.'

'I'm NOT annoying!' Avery frowned.

"Keep telling yourself that," Dako lifted the boy up and headed back into the house. "And suddenly, it's time for your lunch."

Avery gave a groan at this, and rested his head on his sister's shoulder, while Max trailed in behind them, looking over his shoulder once more before entering the house and taking over kitchen duty.

Faye, meanwhile, had finally settled in a tree, and bundled up as small as she possibly could in order not to be seen. She had seen the other children, including Dako, and had felt their confusion and uneasiness toward her. And only a few days ago it had been much simpler… School, cheerleading practice, martial arts practice, the occasional dinner with her father… It hadn't been the most warm life, but it was what she knew. And what she entered now was a loud household with three children and two fathers, a family she had never known about but was magically hers all of a sudden. She was across the world in a country whose language she did not even speak and she was supposed to welcome this.

"There you are!" Jared grunted as he climbed onto another limb of the sturdy old tree and smiled before straddling the branch that Faye sat on and smiling across at her. "This is one of my favorite trees here… Grandpa's house has ones a lot cooler, though. I'm Jared, what's your name?"

"Faye," she returned with a short snap.

"Woah. Nice to meet you, too," Jared muttered, "You're almost as bad as Dako! You're Southern, right? You've got a cool accent."

"Don't try to be nice to me, all right?" Faye sighed.

Jared tilted his head to a side and leaned back a little bit; he was quite skilled at making himself comfortable in trees, mainly due to the fact he was much like Ari, who had been quite the climber himself when he was younger, "I can be mean if you want."

"Shut up, okay?! I can't even hear myself think!" Faye shouted. "Ya'll are so loud!"

"Yeah, we get like that… The only one who doesn't mind is Avery," Jared shrugged, and this met with Faye picking an apple off of the large tree and sending it flying towards Jared's head. Jared expertly spun, still straddling onto the tree branch but now upside down. Faye looked at this, stunned, but this was also short-lived.

"I was raised with ninjas for a little while," Jared answered, shrugging and returning to the top of the tree with ease. "And Grandpa's been teaching us some stuff, too… But we're not supposed to tell about that."

"You guys are a weird bunch," Faye replied with, of all things, a smile of her own.

"Yeah, I can show you the ropes around here… It's not so hard once you get used to Dako, and the whole two dads thing," Jared said with a shrug.

"There you two are!" Leo sighed in relief. "Would you mind getting down here, so we can talk?!"

Jared turned to Faye, and smirked, "Choice is all yours… You'll get sick of apples after a while, though."

"Guess I don't have a choice then," Faye sighed, and shrugged. "Your sister always that loud?"

"Heh, you should see her when I read her journal. Watch this," Jared instructed, and disappeared into the thickness of the tree, while Faye only sputtered.

"Sweetie, why don't you come on down?" Leo asked gently, and Faye nodded, and hopped out onto the ground. "Good, I—AUGH!"

Jared lunged from the tree so quickly he was a merely blur to Faye, and she laughed for the first few moments as Leo laid sprawled out on the ground, Jared atop him and his glasses yards away. Then this faded as she realized both were in pain.

"O-oh.. .Oh no… I'll be right back!" she gasped, and ran back from the two and then turned around, and ran full-speed to the house.

Later that evening:

"It itches…" Jared scratched at his arm and looked down at the blue cast that now covered his left arm.

"Don't, Jared," Leo heaved a sigh and pulled his arm away with his un-broken left arm. His right arm, however, the same arm her shot and wrote with, and therefore worked with, bore a purple cast, with scribbling from all the children on it.

"Hey, Dako, could you get me a soda?" Jared asked as the preteen passed him in the living room.

"Ummmm as I recall you broke your arm, not your leg," Dako was quick to reply as she continued on up the stairs.

"….She gets that from Max," Leo concluded, turning to Jared.

"I'm really sorry," Jared said in a hushed tone. "I just didn't think I'd…"

"What's done is done," Leo said in such a tone, Jared felt even worse. He would have rather his father yell at him, berate him, truth be told. This tone… He sounded disappointed, more than anything. It made Jared feel even sicker inside.

"How's the arm?" Max entered, and paused. "Onnnn both of you…."

"I'm going up to my room," Jared grumbled, and stood, and then shuffled his way upstairs.

"….Things… Have been better," Leo sighed, and looked down at his cast. "I do everything with my hands! I talk to Avery, I work, I shoot, I—"

"Do other things," Max smirked slightly, and sat beside Leo as Lupin gave a sigh of disgust. "I got something that ought to cheer you up really quick."

"You found a big pile money on the front porch?"

"Nope."

It's time for more of my medication?"

"Even better."

"Not possible," Leo replied, and turned to Max. "Lay it on me."

"Fuji's heading back to Japan," Max answered, and smiled. "Anddddd I know exactly what she's going after!"

"What'd you do to find that out?"

"Urm, a Google search and a few questionable things," Max answered, briefly averting his eyes and quickly changing the subject. " Anyway, you'll never guess what she's going after. Hrm? Leo?"

But Leo was already working his way into a light snore on the couch, and Max rolled his eyes, and stood, studying himself on his crutch. He pulled a blanket over his husband and leaned in, whispering to Leo, "That's not the best news of all… If I keep reacting to everything well, including therapy…. I won't need a crutch anymore. Good news for all of us, right? Right… Now gets some rest, hon. Long day tomorrow."

Leo muttered, and Max smiled, righting himself and heading upstairs, "Guys, listenup! I've got to pack! Dako, you're on laundry!"

"What's new with that?!" she returned sharply.

"Jared, you're in charge of telling Avery to look for the suitcases! Meanwhile, you can work on cleaning up the living room!"

"I'll help, too," Faye announced, passing by Max and heading to the living room.

"Good girl… Going to have to definitely learn your name now," Max said to himself as he finally reached his room.

Japan:

"Have fun on your date, honey?"

"How the hell long have you been there?" Yukiko inquired as she passed by Toshiro and her daughter and headed straight for luggage pickup. "Jeeze it's hot…."

"Well, you could always change out your suit for something with a nice tank top," Toshiro answered as he followed her down the terminal.

"How was your show?" she asked, looking around her should briefly to him and then stopping as she came to the rotating luggage.

"I was the best gay puppet they've had in years," Toshiro replied. "I just made the character sound as much like Leo as possible." He then went into his 'Leo' impression, yammering nearly incoherently about translating in Leo's usual anxious tone while Saiyuri only giggled.

"Greatttt. Teach our daughter to start being a bigot at a ripe age…"

"…I really missed you," Toshiro said, clearing his throat. "I… Wanted to know if… You were maybe free—"

"Hey, look on the news! You'll never freakin' believe it!" a passerby ran past the three, bumping into both Yukiko and Toshiro and nearly toppling Yukiko while Toshiro almost lost his balance and dropped Saiyuri.

"God, the only time anyone flocks to see the news is if it's someone shootin' up somethin' or Paris Hilton," Yukiko grumbled as she righted herself and adjusted her fedora.

"Hey, maybe it's Paris Hilton… She's been off the radar lately!"

"You're pathetic," Yukiko grumbled, shoving her hands in her pockets and remaining still amongst the pandemonium. "Well, you have fun with your media drek, I'm gonna get my bags."

"That I can do," Toshiro answered, and looked down at his daughter. "Now what aren't we going to grow up to be, Saiyuri?"

"One of the ladies on TV or like Aunt Fuji," Saiyuri replied.

"Oh, good girl," Toshiro kissed her atop the head and headed over to the mass of people already surrounding the televisions.

"Good people of Japan!" the figure on the TV was definitely female, albeit an old one. Her hair was a nest of gray and white, her skin was pale and her eyes were barely visible through the heavy dark circles. In spite of all of this, she still smiled, baring striking white teeth. "You have become much too complacent in this century, yes! You have forgotten us!"

"So, this some kinda new drama?" Yukiko wondered as she stood beside Toshiro and stared at the screen.

"Nah… It's on every channel… Look at the little logos in the corner," Toshiro nodded.

"Those are called 'bugs'," Yukiko corrected him, and took out her glasses, placing these on and then studying each of the screens. "Damn, you're right…. Who the hell is that?"

"I think I have a good idea…." Toshiro replied, and watched the woman give a long cackle, and then continue.

"Three days from now, we shall show you that we are still well alive… Ha, ha! Well, less alive than you!" the woman continued, cackling while hiding her face partially with her purple kimono. In the process, she revealed a set of long nails. It was not long after the screen went totally black, and moments later, the regular channels flickered on.

"That was a sand witch!" Toshiro said after a moment's thought.

"Please, she had about as much sand around her as an Iowa cornfield," Yukiko snorted.

"She looks just like the one in the stories my mo—Grandmother—Used to tell me! Hey, you don't think…."

"Not possible!" Yukiko replied quickly, and dismissed him with her free hand.

"What, that stuff could exist!"

"Listen, I just got back from Hong Kong, on a date with a tranny. It's been a weird enough week for me," Yukiko sighed and turned around. "Now what were you going to ask me before?"

"Hrm? Oh, nothing," Toshiro replied with a shake of the head. "….Still think that was a witch…"

"There's no such thing as witches!" Yukiko shouted.

"Could've fooled me," Toshiro snorted. "Right, Yuri?"

"Right!" the little girl returned, and tugged on her father's kimono. "Can we take your scooter?"

"She's been on the VESPA?!" Yukiko shouted accusingly, her eyes practically blazing and sending a chill all through Toshiro.

"Well, urm…. Ya see, I…."

"We gonna dress up like Aunt Fuji?" Saiyuri asked, giving Toshiro's sleeve another tug.

"….Aunt….?"

"So it was a witch," Yukiko sighed, and removed her fedora, brushing her hair back and looking about as they exited the airport.

"Get down!" Toshiro shouted suddenly, and threw Yukiko to the ground along with himself, their daughter, and her luggage.

"Ow! Toshiro, what the, the… What…..?" Yukiko looked upward, and watched as a long piece of cloth flew overhead. This would not have been so menacing if the cloth had not been thirty feet in length with glowing red eyes, and made growling noises as it zoomed above the sea of traffic in front of the airport. The cars swerved left, and right, and one nearly drove up on to the curb, almost running over the Ishikawa family.

"…That's it…"Yukiko rose, and removed her magnum, causing what was left of the calm crowd began to scream and run for the inside of the airport.

"How'd you get that on you plane!?" Toshiro gaped.

"You really think security's THAT good?" Yukiko snorted. "Now I'm not about t o have my ass kicked by an oversized tablecloth!"

"You stay with Saiyuri, I'll get that thing!" replied Toshiro, revealing both of his swords from their sheathes.

He passed the young girl off to her mother, and then ran for the creature, jumping onto one passing car and then jumped to another, heading in the direction of the creature.

"Saiyuri, we're gonna go follow Daddy, okay? And make sure he doesn't get his ass kicked…." Yukiko placed her gun back in her jacket, and held her daughter close as she rose.

"Okay!" Saiyuri answered cheerily, and they too went off running.


	14. Season of the Witch

DISCLAIMER: Really, I think everyone gets the point now, but I'm just such a stickler for tradition!!

-hums theme to _Nerima Daikon Bros._-

Ah, good evening! Or, night…Or morning… Or whatever-the-heck time it is over in your respective time zone. I was just putting the finishing touches on my latest chapter, which you are reading the result of currently! A very happy birthday to Lupin III, who turned forty on August 10th!

Fun Fact of Boredom: The heist Fuji's planning here is an actual exhibit in Japan! That's actually a first for me, if I'm not mistaken.

Chapter Fourteen: Season of the Witch

"FUJIIII!" Yukiko shouted at the top of her lungs as she kicked in the hotel room, Saiyuri still in her arms. What she walked in on, however, was a completely different scene from what she expected. Ally stood in the middle of the room, his arms outstretched and wearing a long silk white kimono. His face immediately flushed, and his crossed his hidden arms with the sleeves of the kimono. "….I…." she stammered, and covered her daughter's eyes.

"It… This ain't what it looks like…" Ally said in an unusually small voice.

"Hey, whatever works for your relationship," Yukiko answered, and cleared her throat. "Ya know, you gotta spice things up, right? Rigghttttt…. I'll… Leave you guys be."

Ally went to continue, but Yukiko quickly slammed the door, and headed down to the next door, but instead of kicking this in, she was nearly floored by a door swinging out wide, and then a small woman running down the hall in terror. It was after a few moments Yukiko registered this as Odori.

"….Everyone's gone loco!" Yukiko muttered, and peered in. She saw only a darkened room, with only one light on in the middle, and in the midst of that light a familiar female figure dressed in the same dusty kimono.

"I'm coming for you, Dori-chan!" she hissed menacingly.

"Aunt Fuji!" Saiyuri squealed, and jumped out of her mother's arms and into the arms of the sand witch.

"Hi, Saiyuri-chan!" Fuji answered, reverting back to her usual voice. "How've you been?! How was your mommy's trip?"

"Great, until her father went off after a haunted towel barreling down Tokyo!" Yukiko snapped.

"Ittan Momen!" Fuji clasped her hands together and smiled. "How'd that work out? I was a little worried, I don't work with holograms a lot…. And with Heiji-chan gone right now, I had to take care of a lot of the tech work all by myself!"

"Yeah, your little toy was great… He lunged for it, and fell right into a pile of fresh cement… Don't worry, though, one of those big, burly, construction workers managed to break his fall!"

"It was funny, he got allll dirty!" Saiyuri laughed.

"In quick-dry cement… And that's after his landing gear decked him."

"Cool! Well, not cool, but… Did it leave like an imprint of them in the cement?" Fuji inquired, a bright smile poking out through the grotesque makeup.

"Yeah, like a cartoon!" Saiyuri giggled.

"Why don't you go play with Dai and Hikari, Yuri-chan?" Fuji asked, nothing Yukiko's twitching eyebrow.

"As long as they're not in the same room as Ally… He and Carmen are…. Yeahhhh, doin' more than me," Yukiko tilted up her fedora and watched her daughter jump around Fuji. She certainly was hyper today.

"Oh, no, they're not!" Fuji chuckled, and batted Yukiko playfully, only to have the gunwoman glare at her. "Hehe… They're working on your costume, Yukiko-chan!"

"My costume?"

"Yukiko-Onna. The snow Yokai! I thought it apropos, neh?"

"What's it with you and Japanese demons?"

"It's all in the theme of things, my dear Yukiko!" Fuji pulled off the wig and then scratched her scalp as she walked over to a table laden with papers. "Ow, itchy…"

"Where're you going with this, Fuji?" Yukiko demanded.

"You ever watch cartoons? I did, all the time, growing up," Fuji said with a fond smile. "And apparently I'm not the only one who's a fan of the classics…"

"What're those?" Yukiko peered over her shoulder, and quickly lifting up her daughter onto her shoulders as looked over the plans.

"Statues, on Shigeru Mizuki road! One hundred of them, all bronze, all fine pieces of art."

"And all soon to belong to you, I'm guessing?"

Fuji drew a proud smile, and placed her hand behind her head. "When you're right, you're right! The real Shigeru Mizuki is a distinguished manga author, a living legend! He's best known, along with being a World War II biographer, as the father of Yokai manga!"

"…Figures you'd be in love with a guy who writes stuff that's mainly drawings," Yukiko snorted.

"The town he's from is a fishing place, mainly, but they have this road in his honor, along with a museum, and along the way to the said museum, there's statues lining the road from his most famous work, _Gegege__ no Kitaro_!"

"…Can't say I've ever heard of it…."

"Oh, the indignity of growing up in a country where the best classic anime is bootlegged!" Fuji said with a dramatic sigh, and placed a hand to her forehead. This quickly vanished, however, and she drew a large smile. "To Sakaiminato, Japan, we go!"

"Just like that, huh?" Yukiko smiled, and adjusted her fedora. "How in the hell do you expect to get one hundred statues within Heiji and Jordan AWOL?"

"Ehhh I enlisted a little help," Fuji answered with a smile.

"…I hate when you get that look on your face… What's the point of all this anyway, Fuji? Who's payin' you?"

"…Don't worry, Yukiko-chan, this'll be worth your while in a little while!" Fuji smiled and tapped the tip of Yukiko's nose.

"You have fun playing dressup, I'm going to check on Toshiro down the hall," Yukiko drew away from Fuji and turned to the door.

"Oh! How was your gay-date, by the way?"

"UGH!" Yukiko faltered, grabbing hold of the doorframe and glaring at Fuji. "It wasn't a date!"

"She got you a pretty gun, though," Fuji winked and giggled. "It's okay. I'm jealous, really! You must really have a thing for redheads!"

"And you must really have a death wish," Yukiko growled, and stormed down the hall. "Friggin' Fuji…. Like a friggin' ten-year-old sometimes! No, make that all the time…"

"Yukiko… Could you help me with her?" Toshiro grunted, and trudged down the hall with a shaking, pale Odori, who clung to the cement-covered samurai.

"Dori?" Yukiko bent down, and raised an eyebrow. "…It wasn't real…"

"I was attacked… By a yokai!" Odori muttered, still shaking. Yukiko sighed and with some great effort she pulled off the swordwoman, and stiffened as Odori now clung to her. She slowly placed her arms about Odori, and cleared her throat.

"Y-ya know that was just Fuji in makeup, right?" Yukiko asked. Odori then stopped shaking, and remained still for a few moments. She then pushed Yukiko back, and took hold of her sword.

"…It was now…. Was it?" Odori asked quietly, keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Ummmm yeah…. Dori, where're you going?" Toshiro spoke for the first time, and Odori turned around to her brother.

"…To settle a score…" Odori answered, opening the door to Fuji's room silently and slipping in just as quietly.

"…Well, I'm hitting the showers…." Toshiro said as there came a moving of heavy furniture from inside Fuji's room.

"Ya should, ya friggin' pig," Yukiko smirked, and punched him in the shoulder lightly. She removed her fedora as she entered his hotel room, and left her shoes beside his sandals at the front door. "You got your ass beat by Casper the Friendly Ghost, congratulations."

"I was just trying to protect you and Saiyuri," Toshiro answered as he slipped off his pants, leaving him in his kimono. "You think this'll come out of my hair?"

"We can hope," Yukiko answered, turning away as he unknotted his belt and walked into the bathroom. "If not, well, time to update your look anyway, don't you think?"

"Ummm no," Toshiro tossed out the rest of his clothing, and the sound of the shower starting could be heard moments soon after.

"C'mon, you know I give good haircuts," Yukiko loosened her tie and peered into the bathroom, then took a seat on the closed toilet.

"Ehhhh too easy a joke," Toshiro said after a moment's thought, then peered out inbetween the curtains. "Hey, room for one more!"

"Ummmm no," Yukiko quickly answered with a laugh. "Thanks for the offer, though. More than anything, I wanna get some sleep before Fuji drags us off into the sunset once more."

"Well, I have no problems with the floor, if you want to bunk here tonight," Toshiro replied. "And Saiyuri likes sleeping anywhere. I found her asleep beneath the sink one time," Toshiro laughed, and Yukiko did the same. "You were just as weird a kid…"

"I wasn't…."

"You hijacked a Minicooper and took me along for the ride. And honestly, your driving? Hasn't improved that much, Yuki."

"Yeah, it was fun, though," Yukiko smiled and glanced down at the white tiles. "What the hell happened to that?"

"We had a baby…"

"No, I mean, even before that…" Yukiko waved this off, and sighed, sitting back. "It was like… When you went to New York, everything changed…. Like, you grew up and left me…."

Toshiro had stopped lathering his hair on the other side of the shower curtain, and replied after a few moments thought, "I would've come back if you'd wanted me to, you know that."

"Even when Julia was pregnant with the baby?"

"Well, I'd lost hope of you asking for me… A guy can say he'll wait until the end of the earth, but I'm human, Yuki… I could only wait so long. Plus I heard you'd run off with some pretty boy American."

"Jordan's not a pretty boy," Yukiko chuckled at the thought. "Just different from you."

"A surfer… Honest to God, nice guy, but where was the attraction?"

"So, I can be attracted to a samurai who loves showtunes, but a surfer, no, totally out of the question?"

"The guy's insane… He's in love with my sister, I mean, come on, you have to be nuts to put up with Dori and like it."

"Eh, he's like his dad… Loves the abuse…" Yukiko ended with a knowing tone, and Toshiro stopped again, and his head popped out from behind the shower curtain.

"Okay, wait, what? …No," he then broke into a laugh. "Wait, him?!"

"And you're no different, Goemon Ishikawa."

"Don't call me that… It's creepy."

"What're you going to do if you have a son, huh? Call him 'Gogo'?" Yukiko rose from her seat and placed her hands in her pockets, then stood in front of the shower, unbeknownst to Toshiro.

"…Considering I've had mainly girls, so far, I've never had to worry about that," Toshiro answered while rinsing out his hair. "Jeeze, stuff's still not coming out! I might have to take you up on that haircut. But wear your glasses!"

"I friggin' hate my glasses…." Yukiko grumbled.

"But it'll help your eyes… And it'll stifle that nice little glasses fetish I have…. Always thought Fuji's brother was quite the hot commodity in his."

"I'm hoping you mean Leo…. Heh, I knew it… Should've known it when you started those plays," Yukiko smirked and shook her head. "At least you'll help Saiyuri when she starts dating… You'll be able to give her some good tips, I'll bet."

"Heh, maybe you could do the same," Toshiro stuck out his head once again, and was stunned to see Yukiko so close to the tub now.

"Eh, I'm more of a man than you'll ever be, but I like boys," she shrugged, and placed an arm around the back of Toshiro's neck, bringing him down to her level. He frowned with confusing as he clutched onto the shower curtains; the suddenly pulling had surprised him and nearly knocked him off balance. He was even more surprised after the fact, when Yukiko leaned inward and kissed him.

He began to speak as they broke away, but she held up a hand quickly, silencing him, "Don't ask why, just go for it. If we're gonna do this, though, it's gonna be the final try, all right?"

"Yeah," he nodded numbly. "I… I can do that…."

Down the hall:

Zantetsuken lay at one side beside Fuji on the couch, on the other side there sat a large bowl of popcorn. And in the center of the couch sat a gleeful Fuji, who took another large handful as she watched the scene play out on the television. The banging from the closet behind her sounded once again, but she paid no heed to this.

"I'd usually have to pay for something this good…" she picked up the remote control beside the sword, and adjusted the tiny camera on the new free-roaming device Heiji had developed, which was basically a little four-wheeled machine, much like a toy car, that could silently and easily go undetected if someone were, for example, wanting to spy on the scenes playing out in the next room. "I knew they'd get back together…. Well, this ought to make Saiyuri-chan's year!"

"Fuji!" the door opened, and Fuji rushed to turn off the television, then tossed the remote control onto the table.

"Ryo-san!" Fuji bolted up too quickly from the couch for Ryo's liking, and the getaway driver immediately became suspicious. "I thought you were going to visit your little prince of darkness!"

"I did… And I brought my work home with me," Ryo pointed over her shoulder, and Fuji watched as Victor Lupin struggled in, a few pounds lighter, despite the influx of ice cream he had been partaking of recently. "…What were you watching?"

"Ummmm… _Finding Nemo_!" Fuji said quickly, and there came more banging from the closet. "That's part of the plan… It's a tanuki!"

"….A Japanese raccoon dog," Ryo said plainly, and Fuji nodded. "….Okay, I'll humor you… Put the movie back on, I've never seen it."

"Start it at the beginning, I want to see where the mother gets eaten," Victor called from the back of the room.

"Of course _you_ would," Fuji snorted, and there came more banging from the closet.

"That thing sounds angry…" Ryo said unsurely.

"Oh, it's just hungry!" Fuji replied with a laugh. "I need to go down and buy it some raccoon food later, is all."

"Is this the remote?" Ryo bent down and picked up the very remote she had tossed aside, and Fuji was about to grab this from her, but the closet door suddenly gave in, and out hopped a bound and gagged Odori. Victor looked over at the angered samurai a few moments, straight faced, and only burst out laughing when her eyes widened with the shock of seeing him there. This was fleeting, however, for soon Ryo had the television back on, and although anything too telling was hidden by the shower curtain, Toshiro and Yukiko's voices were unmistakable.

"Is that…?" Ryo stopped, and looked to Fuji, who only stood there, biting hard on her lower lip. "Oh my God you're sicker than I thought!"

"I was just trying it out!" Fuji sputtered, and Odori gave another yell through the duct tape she wore over her mouth. Victor leaned over, and with one pull had the duct tape off, and chuckled at Odori's yell.

"That was quite fun…" he admitted.

"You've got to turn this thing off," Ryo said, pointing to the television. "It's my sister, for God's sakes?!"

"The one who dresses oddly, or the lunatic?" Victor asked, although this went unnoticed by all.

"Fujiko Lupin, you have seen your last sunrise!" Odori shouted.

"Hey, Fuji," Ally stepped into the hotel room now, "Carmen just finished your—WOAH!"

"Now everyone's mad at me!" Fuji cried, and stomped on the floor in frustration.

"I can think of two people who are going to be in pleasant moods," Victor said, breaking the silence and nodding to the television.

New Zealand:

"What, the cold getting to you?" Jordan turned to Heiji, who had given a shiver.

"No… I just had the feeling that I made a huge mistake leaving all of my electronics with Fuji… Like there's been a disturbance in the force," Heiji answered, wiping his hair out of his eyes and taking a seat on the sandy ground, while Jordan did the same.

"Maybe she found porn," Jordan shrugged, taking a seat beside Heiji.

"Nah… She'd be enjoying that," Heiji answered with a shake of the head. "But I'm just afraid she'll use it for something she's not supposed to…"

"Like coasters?"

"I couldn't get Fuji to use a coaster if it were gold-plated," Heiji replied. "…Maybe this was a bad idea after all."

"Eh, it'll probably be the last time we get to do this before we get married," Jordan answered, leaning back and turning to Heiji. "Why aren't you married to my sister already?"

"Now you know I could ask you the same thing… You and Dori ever decide on anything in the family category?"

"If a kid happens, it happens… It was the only way we could come to any terms," Jordan answered. "And she agreed to take it easy if she ended up with another baby. How about you and Fuji, you guys talk about any more?"

"She can't have any," Heiji answered with a shrug. "We had a long talk about it…. Go figure, she has no shame at all, but that's the one thing she actually gets embarrassed by… That and her 'fat' pictures."

"She was cute when she was chubby… Like a little chipmunk…"

"Okay, dude, coming from someone who was fat for most of his life, we don't like being compared to chipmunks," Heiji said plainly, turning to Jordan. "Not all of us looked pretty growing up, like you did, I'm sure. I'll bet you were thin for most of your life."

"Yeah but when you're homeless for years you tend to stay thin," Jordan answered, standing and picking up his surfboard.

Heiji squinted up at Jordan, the bright white New Zealand sun in his eyes, "Crap, really? Didn't your dad ever know?"

"Nope," Jordan answered.

"So you were like a little Hawaiian Oliver Twist… Or that kid from _Galaxy Express 999_," Heiji said while rising and pulling his own board out of the sand.

"Hey, Alvin, a lot of orphans don't like the Oliver Twist references," Jordan said warningly.

"Okay, okay… How about Annie?"

"You gonna do more than fade come the next big wave…."

"Woah, scary," Heiji smiled as they came to the shore. "First one to fade buys the other guy dinner."

"The hold on, precious, because I'm an expensive date," Jordan answered as he ran and then glided onto the water.

"…You're a lot nicer when you're around my sister," Heiji muttered as he too joined Jordan out on the jade ocean water.

France:

"'Morning," Leo yawned and sat up on the couch. "How long was I out?"

"Eh, not too long," Max answered as he stood on the edge of the couch. "We've got a plane to catch, though."

"Ugh, that's right… You think the kids'll be okay alone?"

"Relax, I have your parents coming over…. Heh, if we move, they're coming."

"Oh no, they're not," Leo laid his cast-free hand over his eyes and moaned. "Can we just let Fuji catch herself, just this once?"

"And what kind of a twin brother would that make you?"

"A sane one," he answered, rising and scratching at the cast. "What good are we? I mean, it's like crippled and more crippled… What're we going to do when we get there, you throw your crutch at her and I'll knock her lights out with this heavy cast?"

"That's an idea," Max answered with a chuckle. "C'mon, I'll help you put a bag around your hand so you don't get the cast wet…"

"I can believe I found something worse than being known as _'Mankii-Chan'_..." Leo grumbled as he shuffled upstairs.

"Hey, leggo!" came a yelp from Dako's bedroom, and both men stopped briefly, neither heading for the door but both waiting to see what would unfold. "Stop it!"

"Resistance is futile," came a laugh from Faye.

"Just hold still!" Dako laughed. Her laughing is what convinced Leo and Max that something was indeed very, very wrong, and Leo was the one who opened the door to her bedroom, and both looked onward, stunned at the scene in front of them. Avery sat cross-legged on the floor, laughing, while Faye stood in her cheerleading outfit… For a moment, it looked like there were two Fayes, one smiling and holding her pompoms proudly and the other red-faced and near tears.

"We wanted to see how much they looked alike," Dako explained with a shrug.

"Ya know, aside from the cast…." Max tilted his head to a side.

"Don't do that to your brother!" Leo snapped, placing a hand on Jared's shoulder. "You're both in charge of cleaning the basement!"

"Hey, he was already in the wig when we walked in," Dako shrugged, and Leo blinked, and looked down at his oldest son. "He was all for it until we said we were going to show you."

"….I've gotta, um… Make sure my gun's loaded…" Max cleared his throat, and backtracked out of the bedroom quietly and quickly.

Leo bent down and kissed his son on the forehead, "We'll talk when I get back, all right? You're not in trouble…"

"Okay," Jared sniffed and nodded, wiping his eyes.

"All right," Leo rose and glared down at the girls. "I want to be able to see myself on that concrete floor when I get back…"

"Aye-aye," Dako sighed, and mock saluted her father, then looked to Faye. "I'll call the dump, see if they can send out a trailer…"

"Jared…." Faye gently touched her brother on the should and craned her neck to look at him. "It's… It's okay if you like that kinda stuff… I mean, all sorts of people like different things, and even Bugs Bunny did that sort of thing, just for laughs!"

"Leave me alone," Jared muttered, and she nodded, and lifted up Avery, who signed over his sister's shoulder 'You're prettier than them'. Jared gave a laugh, and returned with a 'thank you'. As soon as Faye left, and he was alone, he adjusted the wig, and turned in the mirror.

Japan:

"Ryo-san, you shouldn't read so much of the newspaper!" Fuji removed the newspaper from an unsuspecting Ryo's hands and read over the headline. "More people missing? Ha, a daily occurrence, sadly… If they didn't let people like Max on the force, they'd probably have less of that happening!"

Ryo said nothing, but only grabbed the paper back, and folded it open, intentionally blocking Fuji's view of her and her view of Fuji.

"Still not talking to me, huh? Dori-chan, what about you?" Fuji looked over her shoulder, and Odori only silently moved another piece on the chessboard while Victor, who was her competition, made several moves in return. "Ohhhh come on, guys! It's not like I knew that was going to happen! What… I mean, we're all adults here!"

"Sometimes I doubt that, Fuji…" Ryo muttered, flipping another page and then scanning over the stories contained on this page.

"Ugh!" Fuji tossed her hands up in the air and stared at the ceiling. "It was an accident, how many times do I have to repeat that?!"

"No, an accident is breaking someone's favorite coffee mug. You were just being a pervert…. A bigger one than usual," Ryo muttered. "You should go make a friend…."

"I have one, he's off surfing and God knows what else!" Fuji murmured, flopping back onto the couch.

"Heya," Yukiko waved and gave a smile as she entered the room, followed by an equally serene Toshiro. Yukiko took a seat on the couch and inadvertently on top of Fuji.

"Ce occupido!" Fuji grunted, and Yukiko quickly stood and nodded, tipping her fedora to the thief and taking a seat on the chair beside the couch.

"What's everyone so quiet about?" Yukiko asked as she looked about the silent room. Victor gave a little chuckle, which ended quickly as Odori kicked him roughly in the shin, and the samurai herself had turned a light shade of pink, and kept her eyes on the chessboard. "And when the hell did Victor get here?!"

"Just in time to see the show," Victor chuckled beneath his breath.

"Yukiko-san, Toshiro-chan, you two are all for this idea, right?" Fuji asked, sitting up on the couch and looking over the two.

"Actually, I think it's one of the worst ones you've ever had…. Statues of a cartoon, I mean, what are you, Fuji, brain-dead or six? But, hell, I know I need the money."

"I'm kind of excited," Toshiro shrugged.

"See! There's someone!" Fuji pointed to the tall samurai and looked back at Ryo.

"Didn't say I wasn't going to help you," Ryo looked over her paper at Fuji. "But you know what you did…"

"What'd you do, Fuji?" Yukiko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I… Well, I…."

"She was messing with Heiji's electronics," Victor said from his place across from Odori. "Hrm, your move…"

"Miscreant," Odori snapped in return as she saw any move would lead to her losing.

"Fraggle," the ever-mature Victor was quick to return.

"Okay, let's get this going!" Fuji leapt off the couch and grabbed onto Toshiro's hands. "Come on, you can help me with makeup! This is gonna be a blast!"

"I don't care if it's an ice cream social, all I know is you ain't gettin' me to dress like that unless the money's good!" Yukiko snapped as she stood and shoved her hands in her pockets. "…She better appreciate all we do for her when she's older."

Paris:

"What're you doing now, looking up your shrink?" Max inquired, leaning over and glanced at Leo's cell phone screen as both waited for their flight to board.

"Nah, my dad," Leo answered with a sigh.

"…Hey, he could just be going through a stage," Max shrugged. "I had one where I wanted to be a superhero!"

"Kosher Kabukiman?" Leo inquired without skipping a beat.

"Hey, how'd you know?" Max smiled, and placed an arm over Leo's shoulders. "He'll be fine. Even if he likes that stuff, well… Who're we to stop him, right?"

"I don't want to stop him, I just feel… Responsible for it…" Leo sighed, tilting his head down.

"If it's anyone's fault, it's your dad's. You've seen what and who he's done over the years… You can't tell me that that hasn't had an impact on his body somehow over the years… Just like I blame all the Ramen for my problems. All the damn MSG totally screwed me up, I'll bet!"

Leo gave a smile, and leaned his head on Max's shoulder, "I still think you should have one…"

"Yeahhhh I don't really know if I want my DNA to carry over. I think G-d made me like boys more just so I wouldn't have the opportunity to make a baby," Max reached over, pushing up the glasses that had slid down the bridge of Leo's nose, and sighed. "You really want one though, huh?"

"Well, it feels right. I've made enough of them!"

"Too many of them… You promise that she's the last one, right?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I promise," Leo chuckled. "….He, what that's look for?"

"…Hrm… Thinking about it, you would've made a nice girl."

"I'm calling my dad now," Leo sighed, and hit the green button on his cell phone. "Hey, Dad! I was hoping to get ahold of you… How's Mom? Great, great… Hey, I was just wondering… I know you were… Really big on disguises over the years. Yes, I know you pretended to be Hitler, we all know that one… Each time you get drunk you remind of that," Leo added in a murmur. "I was just wondering iffff you liked any part of it in particular… Maybe like when you'd dress up in drag?"

This was followed by a long silence over the phone, followed by a long, straight laugh from Lupin on the other line that even Max could here, "No, um, seriously, Dad… I just hear that some times that sort of stuff is genetic, and passes on in generations. Was Grandpa into that stuff?"

"Ew," Max shuddered at the thought of this, and Leo's voice cracked as he quickly answered his father's accusation.

"No, I don't like wearing heels!" Leo shouted, drawing the attention of several people passing by in the airport. "It's not about me! It's about… Victor! Yeah, I… Got some pictures of him from a client and—Crap, Dad! Don't call Uncle Remy! Dad, I— UGH! He hung up… I swear, he's like a ten-year-old!"

"Well, you tried, right?" Max said, and patted Leo on the knee. "And you probably made your old man's day!"

"You kidding? That probably made his YEAR," Leo muttered, and tossed the cell phone back in his jacket. "And now as a result I'm going to have Victor after my ass when all is said and done with."

"Well, he can't have it," Max answered with a smirk. "C'mon, our flight is here…"

"Hrm… You're in a pretty good mood today…." Leo said after a moment's thought, "Especially since we're going after Fuji…"

"Maybe I have a good reason to be today."

"Okay, now I'm worried… What's going on?"

"All in good time," the smile that had been on Max's face, however, faded when both noticed people rushing to the televisions set up around the airport. "…Your Fuji sense is tingling, isn't it?"

"Yeah… It's either that or my medications are acting up again," Leo replied, and followed the crowd over to a mass of televisions.

There sat the same old woman, smiling away on the television with blackened teeth. It was noted though, that there now sat a woman on either side of her. One was in a red and white kimono, with her hair tied back and in chopsticks and combs. The only thing wrong with the woman was the lack of a face. The other was in a completely white kimono, with long black hair, deathly white skin, and bright red lips.

"I see you noticed my friends!" the old woman cackled. "They will be present as well! In fact, I join as many as possible to visit us in Sakaiminato, Tottori! Bring your family, your friends, your—OW!"

The viewers were confused by this sudden yelp, not knowing that Yukiko had taken one of her legs and given Fuji a good kick in the pants out of the site of the camera after the invitation was given.

"Your 'ow'?" Max muttered.

"Ne… Anyway, two more days, Japan…" she said with a grin. "Two more days…. Abaiyo! Hehe…."

Her chuckling was heard for a few more moment, then the screen flickered off, and the then the televisions returned to their normal broadcast.

"…They must not know Halloween's until next mont," Max muttered as he shrugged and continued his hobble toward the terminal.

"…That was Ryoko…" Leo said with a frown, his eyes still focused upon the screen. "The one without the face…"

"What?" Max turned to him. "Like, our Ryoko?"

"Yeah…" Leo nodded. "Trust me, I recognize those hands anywhere. I put a ton of bracelets on them over the years."

"Then that would mean… But her voice didn't match!"

"I'm not the only voice actor in the family," Leo answered. "Well, we know the where and what… And now we know the how… The only question left to ask is why."

"Heh, maybe she finally went crazy," Max said with a smirk.

"Crazier," Leo sighed, and brushed a hand through his hair. "We'll talk more about everything after we get back from Japan, all right? Let's just… Put everything on hold…. Ugh, hold on… My dad…"

"You know, I have the feeling if you'd stayed Leo LeBlanc we wouldn't get nearly as many calls…"

"Hrm…"

"What'd he want?"

"To know where our measuring tape was…"

"LA LA LA LA!" Max covered one of his ears with his free hand, and Leo smirked and nudged him.

"Let's just get home soon and pray they're just trying to make a treehouse."

Paris:

"Are you sure they're gonna be okay with this?" Faye asked worried as she stood by her newfound grandfather and watched two burly men in blue jumpsuits remove the old couch from the basement.

"What a cute little accent, huh, Fujiko-chan?" Lupin smiled and looked to his wife, who was busying herself with paint swatches.

"Hrm? Oh, yeah, definitely… You think baby blue?"

"With white? I know the family's part Jewish, that doesn't mean we have to make the room Hannukah-themed, Fujiko! Go with red!" Lupin sighed, and turned back to Faye, then ruffled her hair. "You're like one of those kids from _Azumanga__ Daioh…_"

"Um, thank you?" Faye asked, taking a step back from the old thief.

"Red… Not shocked…" Fujiko sighed as she held up a swatch to the wall. "Hey, have you talked to Jared? He seems a little… Well… More distant than usual… He's still up in his room."

"Dako-chan went to go talk to him," Lupin stood and smile confidently. "She's inherited the Lupin tongue!"

"I thought she was adopted…"

"Hee hee…. You just keep talking," Lupin said as he turned back to his newest grandchild. "You're definitely going to meet a nice boy one day, Faye-chan!"

"I don't really like boys a lot," Faye answered with a shrug.

"Neither did your father, for a long time," Lupin said beneath his breath.

While this was going on, Dako had made her way upstairs, and did not even bother to knock, but instead allowed herself in Jared and Avery's room, and waved to the boy, who laid on his bed, clutching onto his pillow and staring quietly at the ground.

"What do you want to do now?" he snapped to her.

"Um, I wanted to give you this," she replied, clearing out her throat. "I picked it up while I was out shopping for shelving with Grandma."

"A book? You know there's not a lot I can do with those, right?" he asked as he sat up, still holding on to the pillow but much more loosely now and taking the book in his free hand. "Ninja?"

"Yeah… The first one was… He liked to dress up," Dako answered, clearing her throat. "So, hey, I guess it's a ninja thing, right? Um… There's nothing wrong with… But… Just ask before you go snooping in my closet, all right?

"I was just… Yeah, thanks," he sighed and began to flip through the book.

"Hey, maybe… Just maybe you could be a really good ninja someday, Jared," Dako said with a rare smile of reassurance. "Or at least as good as Aunt Fuji…."

A smile came upon Jared's face, "Yeah, and you'll be Interpol's next greatest inspector…"

"Hey, you're reading, and that's already weird… Don't count anything out," Dako smiled. "Now get the heck out here when you're done playing pretty princess, Grandma's having trouble with choosing a paint color, Avery's bugging the trash guys, and I think Grandpa's freaking out Faye a little bit."

"Time for my first job as a ninja, then…" Jared shut the book and set it aside. "Save the cheerleader!"

"Have fun, Hiro Nakamura," Dako rolled her eyes and exited the bedroom, then hurried back down to the basement. "They'd be so lost without me…"


	15. Don't Rain on my Parade

DISCLAIMER: All mine. All I don't own are five base characters and whatever villains I decide to use at my disposal. Rest? All mine, baby.

Hrm? Ah, back again, I see!

Believe me, your patronage is more than welcomed . Hope that you all liked the last chapter; believe me, it was just as fun to write. If I didn't have fun, why would I be doing this, afterall?? Well, maybe masochism, but I digress… Thank you for all of the positive response, and if you haven't done before I would very much appreciate any feedback, as always. In the meantime, enjoy the next chapter, and I hope that you see me again soon for the next chapter!

P.S.: I resurrected my Deviantart account from the depths of internet hell, so go check it out if you have the time/desire to! Username's jlucydaisuke (big shocker)

Fun Fact of Boredom: Toshiro's gi is the color of the New York Yankees baseball team J He's not a Mets fan.

Chapter fifteen: Don't Rain on my Parade

New Zealand:

"Hehe.."

"Man, I said shut up…" Jordan groaned and rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't see the thing, all right? I didn't even know they had dolphins in New Zealand!"

"Now you do… And now it knows to avoid guys with surf boards," Heiji said with a smile, and patted Jordan on the shoulder. "I think you hit a _Stenella_ _coeruleoalba_… I think it's either endangered or incredibly delicious…"

"How do you even _know _what it's called?"

"I cried until my dad finally broke down and got us a satellite… It was kind of cool, he got so frustrated mom had to climb up the ladder and install it for us. Well, that was the second one… The first one he got mad at, too, and sliced it up into a bunch of different pieces."

"…Must've been a very interesting childhood," Jordan shook his head, but this only made the sharp memory of the dolphin colliding with his skull head-on return.

"It was… Different… But, hey, they always let us be who we wanted to be… I've got brothers and sisters who are everything from doctors to martial arts trainers to one who I think is a bartender now… And they're all gonna be your family someday… Jeeez you're a sucker…"

"Well, better than no family," Jordan shrugged.

"How'd you make it as a little kid all on your own, anyway?"

"I had my mom for a while… It was cool, she got remarried, and the guy was really nice… It was good, I mean, I never really even asked about who my biological father could be," Jordan answered as he and Heiji eyed a flock of seagulls sailing on the currents above the now reddening evening ocean. "This was in Okinawa, on a military base… Well, Michael, that was the guy… Got a transfer to Hawaii, so we went with him."

"And that's why you're a surfer brat," Heiji concluded.

"Yeah, I guess so… I mean, unlike you, some of us get bored with TV."

"And can't work a computer to save his soul," Heiji noted sagely. "Which is why you and my sister were made for one another…"

"Heh… Well, there was an accident one day and… I dunno, I still can't remember the details, I blocked them out… All I know is, I spent a lot of time wandering around, doing a lot of nothing… Then this lady comes, and…"

"You weren't her child bride, were you?"

This earned a smack to the back of Heiji's head, "Like I was saying, she came, and took care of me…. Raised me, prettymuch. Trained me, too."

"What was her name? I know her?"

"It's Becky," Jordan answered with a fond smile.

Sakaiminato, Japan:

"Lookit, Daddy!" Saiyuri hopped onto one of the statues, this one of an odd-looking boy with bushy hair and in long shirt and shorts, and embraced the statue around the neck in order to keep her balance. "I'm almost as tall as you!"

"Ehhhh not quite, but maybe someday, honey!" Toshiro laughed and lifted up the little girl. "You're getting big, Saiyuri-chan!"

"Cuddle fish on a stick, Yukiko-chan?" Fuji held out the fried squid to the gunwoman, who only turned pale at the sight of it, and hurried off into one of the shops. "Doge na kaina!" Fuji shouted to some passing tourists, who nodded and smiled.

"The heck did you just say?" Toshiro wondered as Saiyuri now began to climb onto his back.

"Sakiaminato dialect! It's their way of saying 'konnichiwa'!" Fuji answered with a grin.

"Say another, Aunt Fuji!" came Namiko's voice as she turned her attention away from the ice cream she had been enjoying while her mother instead opted for rice balls.

"Hrmmm… Mai mon!" Fuji said, snapping her fingers together. "It means 'this is delicious'."

"Cuddle fish is yucky," Saiyuri said with tone of obvious dislike in her voice.

"Well, I enjoy it, and so does Hikari-chan," she answered, referring to the sleeping infant strapped to her back. "We'll have to take you all to the ocean later, right, Ryo-san? Ryo-san?"

"She went out with… Ugh, Victor," Ally answered with a frown. "We were gonna look around a bit, scope it out…"

"Okay, you guys know what time to be back by!" Fuji waved the two and their own child off. "Buy something cute for baby Dai, or you'll be in big trouble with me, Ally-chan!"

"Resort areas always make her a little hyper," Ally explained to Carmen as he held the blonde baby in his arms. "Squirmy thing today, isn't he?"

"Mm…" Carmen nodded. "I really like this part of Japan… The ocean's a lot like the one back home…"

Ally caught wind of her tone, and stopped, and turned her, "You're not homesick, are you?"

"No, I just… I'm not used to being away from my mother this long, is all," Carmen answered. "I suppose I should get used to it, though… I have a child of my own now, afterall."

"Anddd he's wriggling like you wouldn't believe!" Ally laughed, and held the little boy in front of him. "Aren't ya!? Hehe, yeah… Just like your dad! You gonna be a martial artist, too, Daisuke? Look, he's already got the legs of one!"

"Mm-hm," Carmen smiled, and nodded. "Allen, I… I think when we get back, when you're finished with this… That we need to talk."

"About what?" Ally's smile faded, and Carmen only clutched to her necklace anxiously.

Meanwhile, in one of the Sakaiminato shops, Victor Lupin walked along the aisles boredly with his wife leading the way, looking about the small handmade toys with great interest.

Victor realized after feeling an uneasy sensation of being stared at that he indeed was, by a small American boy in shorts and a baseball cap.

"…What?" Victor snapped.

The little boy answered with a swift kick to Victor's shin.

"OW! You little bastard! I just got done with surgery!" Victor snarled, clutching on to his aching leg. "Come here!"

"Victor!" Ryo snapped. "People are staring! Stop!"

"I… Did you see what he did?!" Victor snapped, pointing to the little boy, who was now climbing on a display. "Did you?"

"Yes…" Ryo sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Well, what are you going to do if we have our own?"

"We won't. We agreed upon that, remember?" Victor reminded her as he looked about the shop. "…Hrm, probably all made in China…."

"Well, I mean, just in case, you know…" Ryo shrugged and smiled. "I mean, hey, there's always accidents… Look at my sister… And Ari and Fuji…. And Heiji… And Jordan…. And Toshiro…. And… Wow, heh… Never realized how many oopsies there've been…"

"Well, there won't be any here," Victor answered in a mutter. "We're more intelligent then, that, and—Ryoko?"

He turned to see Ryo welling up with tears, and the getaway driver then let out a long wail, and slammed the handmade toy she had been holding onto the ground.

"Wha…. What… Do you all _mind_?!" Victor snarled as he noticed they had garnered the attention of the occupants in the shop. "Ryoko… What's the matter?"

"You're going to be really upset," she sniffed, and looked him in the eyes. "Please don't get too mad… I… I didn't mean for it…."

"Just tell me what's wrong…"

Sakaiminato Airport:

"They don't even have decent magazines…" Leo discontentedly as he flipped through the magazine rack of the small airport store. "Hrm… _Time Asia_? Better than comic books."

"Heh, what's wrong with comics, you snob? They taught me Japanese… And that's a lot of big talk from Mankii-chan, don't you think?"

"Mankii-chan?" the clerk, an older woman, looked up from her paper and gasped. "You're Mankii-chan?! My daughter loves you!"

"…Um… That's… Really good," Leo replied with the twitch of a smile, and returned to the papers, now picking up an English newspaper.

"Could you do that voice?" she clasped her hands together, and pulled out her cell phone. "Here, please, leave a message for her? She would love it for her birthday! Mankii-chan's her favorite!"

"I.. Um… Okay…" Leo took the cell phone unsurely. "What am I saying?"

"Something like… Happy birthday… Her name's Kimiko-chan!"

"O-okay," Leo nodded, and cleared his throat as he held the cell phone to his face. "Kee-hee-hee, happy birthday, Kimiko-chan, from your friend Mankii-chan, who's here in Sakaiminato this week! Now be good, haha! Abaiyo!" As soon as he shut the phone, he was back to his normal reserved demeanor, and passed the phone back to her. "How much do I owe—"

"It's on the house," she answered, waving them off. "You know, you sound a lot like—"

"Yasuo Yamada? Yeah, I get that a lot."

"No! Naruto!"

"…He's voiced by a woman," Leo said, blinking.

"Well, you have a wonderful quality to your voice," she reassured him. "Thank you very much…"

"Yeah, thanks," Leo nodded, and headed out of the shop with his small bag of goods with Max beside him, who had remained quiet during all of this. "…Do you think I'm really that effeminate?"

"…" Max blinked, and coughed, "Well, you're not very butch… Hey, there's nothing wrong with femme!"

"Femme!?" Leo shrieked, and pointed to Max. "You're the femme one!"

"Me?" Max snorted. "I was in a gang, I have a tattoo, and before I got shot in the spine I was a Krav Maga fiend… You knit, and read…"

"Reading doesn't make for an effeminate man!"

"Mm, but, the knitting… And the fashion sense," Max sighed. "Listen, there's nothing wrong with it! It's part of what I liked about you, the fact you weren't that dominant a guy!"

"Oh, I can be dominant!"

"You just have to be drunk," Max sighed. "Listen, you're perfect the way you are… Why don't you call your dad, see how everything's going?"

"You just want to avoid the subject, huh?" Leo pulled out his own phone, and stared at it in contemplation. "You know what, it might be better if I don't, and just assume they're doing well."

Paris:

"A-ha! Jigen, you haven't failed me yet!" Lupin said excitedly as he skipped to the door of Leo and Max's home and took the box from the delivery man, which the gunman had sent over from Chicago the day before. "Perfect, perfect!"

"Did you buy more porn off of E-bay?!" Fujiko asked accusingly, tugging at his ear.

"Ow, ow! No, I didn't!" he yelped. "These are for the kids!"

"Ugh, disgusting…"

"It's not porn, all right!? Yes, I order a lot through Jigen's shop, but these are from his _other_ shop."

"Oh, God, Lupin, that's even worse!"

"What?! Fujiko-chan, they have the name 'Lupin' attached to them."

"Dako's Zenigata."

"What?"

"Her name's Dako Zenigata."

"I… Listen, this is important!" Lupin answered as he set the box down and opened it, pulling out five smaller wooden boxes.

"What's this one for? They only have four kids, unless Ari…. Oh, God, did he—"

"No, but, it's my just-in-case one… And, hey, if Faye's the last one, I can always gave it to Hikari-chan," Lupin answered as he lifted up the boxes and whistled on his way down the stairs to the basement. Jared was putting the finishing touches on a pool table, while Dako and Faye attempted to figure out the wiring of the television. Avery had chosen to immerse himself in the books in the boxes Lupin had drug downstairs, mainly the children's books.

"Guess who's got presents?!" Lupin called cheerily to his grandchildren. "Come on, gather 'round!"

"Is it throwing stars?!" Jared asked, hopping and taking a seat on the pool table.

"A pony. Oh please, let it be a pony," Dako deadpanned, and tossed aside the cable box onto the couch. "I so give up on this… I'm calling Uncle Heiji when he gets back from Austria or wherever the hell he ran off to."

"What is it, um… Lupin?" Faye asked, still uncomfortable with the idea of referring to him as 'Grandpa'.

"I've got one for each of you… Now don't go getting excited, they're not loaded," Lupin instructed each of the children as they each took a box and opened it, revealing a silver Walther in each box.

"He's going to kill you, Lupin!" Fujiko gasped.

"What?" Lupin shrugged. "He had a gun at Avery's age! It's about time they got a feel for one!"

"I never held a real gun before!" Faye gasped with excitement as she cautiously took hold of the weapon. "Muchless owned one!"

"I'll take your Auntie Ryo to show you a thing or two… Aunt Yukiko would, but I think she's having more issues," Lupin coughed, and placed his hands on his hips. "Well, we'll put those away for now, maybe hang them up… Now, no practicing without either of your parents or me or Grandma around."

"What about Ojiisan?"

"You can practice with him and Nana as long as I'm not over… I think old man Zenigata would be too tempted if he got his hands around a gun and I was in sight…"

"Old man?" Faye blinked. "But you're all gray!"

"…Hehe, if you didn't have that cute accent, I might actually be mad," Lupin said with a smile, bending down to come face-to-face with the girl.

"Hrm… Look like you're kind of getting a bald patch, too, Grandpa…" Jared noted as he tilted his head to look at the back of Lupin's hair.

"Hehe, you _don't _have a very cute accent, Jared, so you get to help the movers," Lupin said with the same wide grin.

"Ugh… Me and my mouth…" Jared groaned as he trudged to love stack of heavy boxes in a corner of the room.

Japan:

"You're really…?" Victor cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. Beside him was the statue Saiyuri had been playing on earlier, and on the other side of him sat Ryo, with her arms across her chest and her eyes reddened and puffy from bawling. "Well… How… Far along….?"

"About two months," she answered, sniffing. "I took about twelve tests to make sure I was, and… I am… So, are you?"

"It's odd," Victor admitted with a nod. "But… I'll adjust… It won't be too bad… Boy, or girl?"

"Don't know yet," she replied, wiping her eyes and smiling. "So you're really okay with it? I mean, I thought you didn't like children…"

"It's different when it's mine. I can meld this one," Victor replied. "You finish your playing dress up with the whore, and I'll head back home, and… Prepare for everything, I suppose…"

"You'll be all right with Emily?"

"Absolutely. I'll put that little tart in her place… If not, I'll just put more sleeping pills in her food," Victor rose from his seat, and bent down to kiss her. "Stay safe, Ryoko."

"You can bet on it," she took his hand and placed it on her cheek. "We both will…"

"Mm. I'll head out, if anyone asks, I'm in a business meeting," Victor turned from her, looking back once more, and then passing by Fuji, who was waving at what appeared to be a trash car. "…You're the result of your father drinking too much prior to your conception, I'm willing to bet…" Victor muttered in Fuji's direction.

"Ummm Fuji? Mind if I asked what the hell you're doing when people are already starting to arrive!?" Yukiko shouted, clenching her fists. "Toshiro and I just saw two more tour buses pass by!"

"Enjoying the sites, Yukiko-san!" Fuji answered with a smile, turning around to the gunwoman. "And I'm waving to all of the viewers out there! Now, why would Toshiro be with you still? He's got an important job to do, afterall!"

"And I still don't know what your plan is!" Yukiko shouted. "How in the hell are we supposed to pull off this heist when—"

"Shhhh," Fuji pressed two well-manicured fingers against Yukiko's lips. "Your job for now is to watch over your daughter! Toshiro-chan should be busy double-checking Dori-chan's work now!"

"Double-checking?"

"Certainly! Why do you think she wasn't with us during our broadcast?" Fuji said with a grin.

"I… Well…"

"Go!" Fuji pushed her forward. "We'll worry about everything when the time comes! Now I have some work to do myself, as does Ryo-san!"

"Yeah, I… Fine," Yukiko sighed, tilting down her fedora. "I didn't come all this way to play tourist, ya know!"

"Mm-hm, dually noted," Fuji nodded.

"Mommy, Mommy, look!" Saiyuri now ran toward Yukiko with Namiko running beside her, and the two clutching hands. "We wanna show you!"

Yukiko sighed, and smiled in defeat, "Fine, let's go show Mommy…."

"A little bit sleepy, Dori-chan?" Fuji looked over to the samurai, who had given a yawn in the midst of her otherwise silent meditation.

"It could not be helped… Shigeru Mizuki road is quite long for those on a mission," Odori replied.

"And it looks like it went pret-ty well, if you ask me! If I have one thing to thank Mamoru for, aside from my little girl, it's his dad's nifty little scientific advances… Maybe I should send him flowers in thanks, eh?" Fuji smiled in appreciation, and looked at the statue while doing so. "Now I better hurry! I have a laptop to set up, amongst other things!"

"You are… Incorrigible, Fuji," Odori said in between another long yawn.

"And you're going to miss the bus to sleepytime junction if you don't get back to the hotel! Leave Nami-chan with Yukiko-san for a while, she doesn't look like it, but she's a good parent! Enjoy the quiet while you can, I'll need you nice and awake tonight!"

"Mm," Odori nodded, and stood from her cross-legged position. "When the sun sets…" She began to walk to leave, and it was around this time Toshiro returned, with an infant in his arms.

"Did you finish? What's Dai-kun doing with you?" Fuji blinked.

"Carmen asked me to look over him," Toshiro shrugged. "She seemed upset…."

"She has… Recently…." Fuji answered in rare solemness.

The hotel:

Odori had changed into a much more comfortable pink kimono, one that had belonged to her mother many years ago, and now made her way down the hallway with a few cans of tea and some nori-flavored chips in her arms. She wore a serene smile as she headed down the hall; while she loved both her fiancé and her daughter, the silence was always welcomed. And a Fuji-less afternoon was a rare treat, as well.

She had almost made it back to her hotel room when she caught two voices in the otherwise silent hall. She noted an ajar hotel door, and as she crept closer, the number registered, and she recognized this as Ally and Carmen's room.

"There's someone else," Ally concluded.

"Allen, no!" Carmen answered, clearly exasperated. Odori's interest was piqued at these words, along with the tone both used. Ally did not sound accusing, but… Sorrowful.

"I just… Allen, I'm not…"

"Carmen, tell me what it is, and I'll change it, I swear on the grave of my grandfather and all the way back!"

"….My mother wanted to join Mr. Lupin, after he had rescued her…. She begged him… Only to have him turn him down, and then he never returned… You know, when she used to tell me that story, I never fully understood it," Odori could see neither person, but she could hear the choking in Carmen's voice. "I never did, until… I started traveling so very much…"

"If you're tired, then we'll leave, the both of us! Just let me do this with Fuji, and I'll have it all out of my system!" Ally answered. "She'll understand it!"

"I know that she will," Carmen replied. "What I'm just asking for is for you… To try to understand it… I'm always happy when I'm around you, and with you and the baby, but… Aside from that, I…. I can't really remember the last time I was happy since all of this… I see you day after day, come home bruised, and battered, and for what, Allen? A legacy… Well, perhaps that's yours, but I have one as well."

"What about the baby?" Ally said after a long pause.

"I don't want him to be a thief," Carmen answered. "What you and your friends do is outstanding, and commendable, but… It's too high a cost, from what I have seen… Too many people are hurt in the process."

"I only steal from bastards who had it coming!" Ally snapped, a rare raise in his voice.

"I meant you, Allen," Carmen whispered. "I love you, but… I can no longer do this… I'm sorry, but… I'm returning to Cagliostro tomorrow…."

"Carmen, please, let me change. Gimme the chance to! I mean, I… I was a lot different before I met you, and… You changed me already! All for the better!"

Odori could not listen to any more. She silently slid past the altercation, unheard and unseen by both, and headed into her room, making sure to lock the door behind her. She set her snacks on the ground, then wiped her eyes on her kimono sleeve, blaming the dust in the old room for her tears.

That night:

"He LEFT?!" Fuji yelped, nearly toppling over from the news Odori had just left her. "Carmen-san, too!? And little Dai-kun?!"

"They had their issues to work out," Odori answered, and opened one eye from her mediation. "I will gladly double my workload in his stead, however."

"Thank you, Dori-chan," Fuji said with a nod. "So good that SOME people are still loyal after all this time!"

"Enough blabbing from you," Yukiko snapped. "What are we going to do now?"

"Get dressed," Fuji said with a smile. "I've set up everything, and our other players ought to be here soon enough!"

"Other players?"

"Yup! You remember those buses?" Fuji grinned and hopped off of the couch. "Now where did I set my wig…?"

The shopping district:

"Anddd this for Dako," Leo nodded confidently and placed another trinket in his shopping basket while Max merely rolled his eyes silently. "What do you think?"

"I think we should get back to the hotel, or at least look around for clues," Max replied, glancing about at the shoppers around them. "At least start questioning…"

"I know, but… I feel really bad that the last thing I did before I left is yell," Leo answered with a sigh, tilting his head down. "My dad was the same way, when I was little… Whenever he would yell and me and Fuji, and then go off somewhere, he'd always come home with these cool presents. I got my first Latin book that way!"

"Intriguing," Max muttered, and turned around to the clerk. "Excuse me, Ma'am, have you seen any of these people around here? Especially this one, with the goofy grin…"

"Max, just relax, we'll find her… You know Fuji, she never lays low for long…"

"Except when she's pregnant or has a price on her head," Max snorted. This earned a glare from Leo. "Fine, fine, we'll look around for the kids. We're supposed to be working, though… I mean, these trips are out of pocket and all!"

"No they're not," Leo admitted with a small cough.

"What?" Max blinked, and stood back on his crutch. "Then who….?"

"I… Interpol…. Possibly…"

"What?!" Max snapped. "What do you mean 'Interpol, possibly'? We quit!"

"Well, you gave me the papers for it, yeah… Max, I was worried! So, I talked to them a bit, andddd…. They're funding for us to chase after Fuji, because none of their guys were good enough, essentially."

"So, you…? Then where are the…?"

"In between some books… I, urm… Didn't think you'd think to look there," Leo answered sheepishly.

"You think I'm an idiot," Max snarled darkly, and stormed out of the shop as best he could.

"Max, wait!" it wasn't hard for Leo to catch up, although Max had become reasonably faster since his accident. "I didn't mean it like that! It was just for the kids!"

Max spun around, but did this too quickly, and lost his balance. Leo quickly caught him, however, although much to his chagrin Max landed on his arm that was covered by the cast. "….Owwww…."

"You okay?" Max blinked as he noted Leo's obviously pained expression.

"Nothing I didn't deserve," Leo answered as he helped to right Max up and rubbed his sore arm. "…Listen, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'll really try not to keep things from you again, okay?"

"…How's your arm?"

"Hurts a lot!" Leo admitted with a laugh. "How's your back?"

"Eh, killing me… Some team we are," Max said with a smirk as he resumed his walk. "I'm like the Jewish Tiny Tim and you have more shrinks on speed dial than relatives…. Hrm…"

"What's up?"

"I've got a hunch," Max answered as he noted two large tour buses parked to the side of a hotel. "There aren't any festivals going on, no bus routes lead through here, and we were the only tourists in the shop… So why, at dinnertime, would this place still be this quiet when there's two full tour buses outside of that hotel and no restaurant?"

"Looks packed enough to me," Leo muttered as he looked about and noted the increase in people. "They're probably wanting to see the monsters Fuji promised! I mean, even the shop wer were just in is getting busier the closer it gets!"

"How could they charter buses and get that many people together that quickly, though?" Max wondered aloud. "Those don't add up…"

"Then perhaps we should go check it out," Leo said with a confident smile.

"Yeah… Definitely…." Max answered as he noticed a petite female police officer bring out a few wooden barriers and begin to line them up along the street.

In the hotel:

"She's lost it," Yukiko shook her head and watched as Toshiro rushed back into the opened hotel room, which was now filled with brightly colored costumes and boxes of makeup.

"Hey, have you seen a kappa shell?" he asked, clearly breathless as he searched about for the costume.

"A _what_?" Yukiko asked, sauntering over to him with her hands in her pockets.

"It looks like a big… Turtle shell," Toshiro answered, making a gesture that resembled the shape of the shell. "Ah! Here we go!"

"So she's got you doing all of the costumes?"

"No, I've got help," he answered, turning around with the bulky shell in his hands. "Victor's surprisingly good with makeup, and Fuji's a master at the kind of crap, too. I'm basically the go-to boy for costumes."

Yukiko nodded and again placed an arm behind his neck, craning his head down and bringing him to her level. She kissed him, and this left Toshiro with a wide smile on his face as they broke away.

"Did I do something I don't know about? I'll gladly take credit for it, whatever it is."

"Eh, just felt like it…" Yukiko shrugged. "You look kinda… Cute… When you're working your ass off. It's like you really get into this stuff. It's like seeing a kid who's nuts about trains with a brand-new set."

"Well, this stuff makes me happy," he answered with a shrug, and cleared his throat. "You know what else—"

"Don't push it," Yukiko snapped. "Just take what you're given and work with it."

"Yes, ma'am," Toshiro answered with a laugh. "You want to give me a hand with this?"

"Not in the least," she then walked over and glanced out the window, and sighed. "Well, looks like I have to go to work now… Leo and Max are outside. Can't they just stay home and paint each other's nails or whatever the hell it is their types do in their free time? Maybe they could go buy another kid."

"Hey, which one do you think is Brad and which one's Angelina?"

"They're more like what would've happened to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon if they had just quit fooling themselves," Yukiko answered as she removed her magnum from the back of her pants and spun the barrel.

"Are you sure you're going to need that? I mean… The one's using a cane…"

"Hey, I can't be completely bored either, now can I?" Yukiko tilted her fedora downward and then opened the hotel window. "Tell Fuji I went out to take care of a pest problem."

"If I happen to find her, you got it," Toshiro answered, and watched as Yukiko jumped out of the window and into a nearby sturdy tree. "She never really changes, even in almost thirty years… Crap, I'm almost forty… Ugh… Well, at least Jordan'll get there before I do."

He then went back to his work, gathering up his makeup, while Yukiko concentrated on distracting the two detectives.

"Toshiro-chan, how's it all going?!" Fuji flittered into the room and looked about. "Almost ready?!"

"Yup! Fuji, why the hell are you doing all of this, anyway?" Toshiro bent down and pulled out his sought-after shell and heaved it onto his back. "What could possibly even you want with a hundred statues?"

"Well… Who wants to be forgotten?" Fuji shrugged. "Hey, that's why I keep up the family name! Soooo I thought I'd help out the people of Sakaiminato after one of the curators approached me when I came here on vacation a few months back. And you know what a sucker I am for good anime, Toshiro-chan!"

"We're not getting paid for this, are we, Fuji?" Toshiro sighed.

"You know, there's… Monetary gifts then there's gifts of the heart…."

"Yuki's gonna kill you," Toshiro said with a chuckle and a shake of the head.

"Well, maybe you could keep her… Busy?" Fuji pulled out a few bills and smiled. "How about after all of this mess you two go and work on your relationship, neh? I'll watch Yuri-chan, if you want."

"Hrm… How'd you know?"

"You two get these little smirks, and it's obvious… Pretty cute, really, congratulations!"

"Yeah, well, don't jinx me yet; this is our last chance."

"You guys'll be just fine," Fuji nodded reassuringly. "Sooo what do you say? I have tickets, too! One 'round trip to the Bahamas?"

"Fuji, I love you."

"Funny, your brother says the same thing," Fuji laughed, and reached down and picked up her long, gray wig. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a parade to lead!"

"You're incorrigible," Toshiro laughed and shook his head. "We'll go after this… Before she's any wiser… She's taking care of your brother and brother-in-law right now."

"Ohhh, they're here! Great!" Fuji clapped her hands together excitedly after placing her wig on her head and adjusting it. "I was hoping they'd see me! Do you think they brought a camera?"

"Fuji, there's fourteen crews outside… I think your mom'll tape one of them," Toshiro nodded reassuringly. "Now get going."

"I'm going, I'm going! Jeeze, I'm the one giving out directions here!" Fuji turned away from him and back into the hall. "Okay, the sun's setting, let's get going people!"

"She's a born director," Toshiro snorted.

"I'm not liking how quiet it is," Leo looked about at the now ever-growing crowds of quietly murmuring people. The sun was beginning to set, and soon streetlights flickered on.

"It's almost night, people are tired… Some are home with their families, now. But no, not your sister… She has to drag our asses be to Japan every time."

"Oh, come on, don't be so grumpy, Max!" Leo chuckled, nudging his partner lightly. "Hrm?"

"What's up?"

"Cell phone," Leo answered, pulling out the vibrating purple and silver phone. "It's the house."

"What do you think's—"

But drums began to sound, just as Leo went to answer, and all went silent as the drums came closer, and the streetlights began to flicker.

They would have gone after the old woman who walked down the center of the road, leaning upon her old wooden staff as she struggled along, and then the crowd, who had been silent, gasped as a white sheet flew overhead, and more grotesque figures began to round the corner. Children went to run out to the monsters, only to be held back by their parents.

"What's she doing?" Leo wondered aloud, and heard Max reach for his handcuffs, only to stop him.

"Hrm?"

"Look," Leo nodded, and noted all of the tourists. "They're all buying stuff here."

"Okay, good for them, they got suckered, too."

"Well, this place is… Never this busy…" Leo looked about, and jumped a bit as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You boys enjoying the show?" Yukiko asked with a grin.

"Shouldn't you be in costume?" Leo asked, glancing calmly to Yukiko.

"Nah, I'm babysitting you bastards for the time-being," Yukiko answered. "I don't do well with makeup, anyway. You two enjoy the show, then when all's done, then you go after my boss. Until then, why doesn't someone get us some snowcones, eh?"

"What's my sister up to, Yukiko?"

"You know, I'm still not sure… But, ya know what, I don't care, as long as I get paid," Yukiko chuckled, and watched as the people dressed in complex costumes passed them by.

"Great… This is like Disney but worse then, eh?"

"Aw, I thought your kind liked Disney! They give you guys your own holiday, afterall!... What the?" she raised the brim of her hat and watched as the statue beside them began to stir, and then rose from the ground. "What the hell?!"

"Fuji!" Max growled, but watched in disbelief as statues all along the pathway began to rise in the same fashion. "What's she using, her bitchcraft?!"

Leo narrowed his eyes as he studied the statue; it wasn't easy to see, but when the light shone from the lamplight, it was obvious that the statue was resting on a clear cushion filled with helium, and the cushion was connected to large clear balloons. '_How'd she… But how…?'_ Questions about the possibility of this raced through Leo's mind, until he remembered who else had been capable of the 'ability' of levitation.

"Hehehe…. So she stole it from you, did she?" Leo chuckled, and placed his unbroken hand on Max's shoulder. Max had gone off on another rant, but stopped as soon as Leo placed a hand upon his shoulder.

"I think she already stole what she wanted… And from the looks of it, I think she's getting what she wanted," Leo announced as a few of the children ran into the slow moving parade, and the old sand witch leading the parade took the time to laugh and pat them each on the head warmly.

"If she does anything funny…" Max began.

"She won't, not with kids," Leo shook his head. "Let's see what she does, if she goes to pull anything, we'll catch her then."

"Why do you constantly entertain this lunatic?!" Max pointed directly at her, and Leo shrugged.

"I don't know, why'd you have such a bad crush on her?"

"I… What?! No, I didn't! She's not even my type!" Max snapped, but his face had taken on a light pink tint.

"Good, she's out of your range anyway, Zenigata… Or is it Mrs. Lupin now?"

"I've had enough of you!" Max snapped at Yukiko. "There's nothing stopping me from running your little ass in!"

"A 0.2 shot I think would," Yukiko returned, and eyed Zenigata. "And I ain' nearly as nice as your little crush, Max."

"Okay, how about we just watch the show, huh?" Leo gave a nervous laugh, and stepped in between the two. "No shooting until everything's over, okay?"

"Fine by me," Yukiko looked back to the parade, and watched as a tall figure, dressed in a goblin mask and red wig, walked down the path, stopped a moment, looked directly at her, and then continued.

"Such an idiot," Yukiko shook her head and sighed.


	16. Old Friends

DISCLAIMER: I only really write these because if not, my OCD goes wild. The page just looks off. But, all the same, I don't own Lupin III. Is he even in this chapter? Don't think so...

I'm heee-rrreeee

But is anyone there? –waves- Hello? Eh, well, everyone's off doing exams anyway, and I'm no different. Thanks to everyone for the messages to check in and make sure I'm still alive!! I am, I've just been busy with exams, amongst other things : ) I still have this to keep me sane in spite of everything though, and I still have people who keep me going. Thanks to all of you for another great year!

Author's Note: Oh my gosh, I got it up!! -cries in happiness-. Something's off with my computer, and if you only knew the hell it took to make this chapter possible... Please, PLEASE enjoy!!

Fun Fact of Boredom: There's a poll up where you can vote for which is your favorite Lupin IV character now on my profile : ) Feel free to go and vote if you want, I'd really appreciate it! I'm really curious to see who takes lead, although I have my theories…

Chapter Sixteen: Old Friends

"WHAT do you MEAN I'm not getting paid?!" Yukiko snarled while Fuji cowered in a corner, still in her full costume.

"Ohhh, but Yukiko-san, didn't you see all of those happy faces?" Fuji clasped her hands together, but this did not save her from Yukiko's death grip, which found its way gripping around Fuji's throat.

"Can't…. HCK!... Breathe!" Fuji choked, and this continued until Toshiro managed to pull the gunwoman away from Fuji.

"Yuki, Yuki, come on… It all went off without a hitch, the kids loved it, the statues are back where they belong, and we're heroes in Sakaiminato!"

"Why my dad… Never killed your dad…. I will NEVER know."

"Because your dad's in love with mine?"

Yukiko delivered a punch to the wall, only inches away from Fuji's face. It went right through the wall and into the drywall, "Don't… Say crap about my father…"

"She's a little more touchy than usual, wouldn't you say?" Fuji muttered while rubbing her reddened throat. Yukiko, meanwhile, had stormed away from Fuji, away from the gang, and out the door.

"Yuki! Ugh…" Toshiro rolled his eyes and then ran out to follow her, but did not see her walking down either hall.

"Don't worry, she'll be back," Ryo reassured him. "She throws tantrums, you know that as well as I do. She gets it from Dad."

"She needs one good smack to the head," Toshiro grumbled, and sighed with defeat. "You'd think I'd learn!"

"Just enjoy the quiet, Toshiro-chan!" Fuji smiled and stretched. "Heiji-chan and Jordan-chan will be home soon, and I'm sure Ally-chan won't be _too_ long!"

"You say that last part as though you hope for it to be true, but are not certain," Odori said from her quiet corner of the room.

"Oh, who can be sure about anything, Odori-san?" Fuji asked with a grin. "What's there to be sure of aside from the fact we're all going to die? But even then, who can say for sure?"

"…I'm getting a drink," Toshiro said with a shake of the head.

"Yeah, me, too… Philosophy hurts my head!" Fuji admitted with a giggle.

Ryo grinned at this and shook her head, but beyond this smile still felt a bit of worry for her older sister.

"Damn… Friggin'… Fuji!" Yukiko snapped as she stalked down the quiet town roads, tripping several times along the way due to her ever-decreasing night vision. "I friggin' hate her!" she snarled.

"Dear, dear, watch out!" she felt a tiny hand grip on to her arm quickly, and Yukiko was saved from running into an iron lamppost that had had its light burn out long ago.

"Huh? Urm, thanks, Grandma," Yukiko cleared her throat and adjusted her fedora. "I owe you one…"

"Here, take a seat… You're shaking!" the old woman gasped. "I'm guessing it's be a long day for you here?"

"You could say that," Yukiko answered with a sigh as she took a seat on a bus stop bench next to the elderly woman. "Had to help out with that stupid friggin' parade."

"Oh, I thought it was just fine… I'm here with my daughter and my son-in-law for a holiday, myself," the old woman explained. "He grew up in the country, albeit a different one than this one. They're taking a break from their own children to take me here… Used to be so much easier getting around, but, you know how it is when you get older."

"….Yeah. I think I'm about done. Thanks for saving me, again, Granny," Yukiko nodded, and rose, this time nearly toppling a couple only a decade or two older than herself.

"Sorry," the man looked down at Yukiko and smiled, a hand on her left shoulder.

"No prob," Yukiko eyed the man, then the woman, and could not help notice something familiar about the woman in particular. It was rather difficult to tell though, considering her vision. "Eh, thanks for the help, Grandma… You guys… Have a good night."

"You have one as well… And say hello to your family for me!" the old woman called.

"My—" Yukiko turned about to face the woman and her family, but found all of them now gone. The gunwoman gave a shake of the head, followed by a small shudder, "Time to step back and maybe reconsider that diet…"

Paris, the following day:

"Why'd we let her go again this time?" Max asked tiredly, glancing over to Leo, who was driving into the outskirts of the ever-reddening Paris countryside.

"She didn't technically do anything wrong," Leo answered with a shrug, and smirked at Max. "Okay, so I probably can't get you her in handcuffs for Christmas like I wanted to, is there something else you wanted?"

"New toaster would be nice," Max muttered, and Leo chuckled as the two turned down the house's gravel driveway. The Harley parked out front was not the first thing they noticed, but it clearly stunned Max. The first thing the two noticed was the large mound of trash at the edge of the driveway.

"What in the heck's been going on here?" Leo wondered, not noticing Max's fixation on the motorcycle. "Max? You okay?"

"I hope I will be," Max replied.

"Heya, guys!" Leo's father was out on the porch now, waving to the two, with Fujiko beside him and at the other said a tall, dark-haired woman dressed in a red leather jacket and black jeans. She smiled widely at the two, and as Max worked his way out of the car, she ran down and embraced him tightly, practically lifting him off of the ground. Leo shuddered at the sound of what he was convinced was Max's spine crunching.

"This is where you were!" she laughed in a clearly American accent. "And with kids! Holy crap, just because you leave the gang doesn't mean you don't have to tell your best friend from it!"

"Leo, this is Torako… Torako, this is my partner in crime, amongst other things, Leo Lupin."

"How do you do," Leo muttered as he looked over the short-haired woman. She looked like she could rip in half phone books with ease, he noted.

"Hehehe, he's a cutie, isn't he?" she said with a grin. "Never thought you'd go for a nerd."

Leo's face flushed, "A ne—"

"What're you doing here?" Max asked as he looked her over. "And did you get taller?"

"Ha, still taller than you!"

"Hey, Dad, Pop!" Jared waved from a second-story bedroom window he was leaning out of. "She's really cool! Can we keep her?!"

Leo rolled his eyes, a gesture that escaped everyone except Fujiko, and headed to the trunk of the car.

"Guess that's a no…" Dako said with a shrug as she too looked out the window.

"When did you get all of those?!" Torako pointed to the four children who now crowded around the same window. "Your guys' kids rock! You're like… The non-evil Rosie O'Donell and that other lady…"

"Her name's Kelly," Leo muttered from the trunk as he worked to pull out their luggage.

"Here, lemme give ya a hand with that, since I don't think gimpy'll be able to pick up much more than his purse," Torako said with a hearty laugh. Leo looked for Max's expression, which surely must have been one of anger from what she had said, but only found an amused grin.

"Thanks," Leo said barely above a mutter, and rushed into the house without another word. Lupin looked to Fujiko with a raised eyebrow, and Fujiko turned around and followed her son.

"I never took you as the jealous type," Fujiko said with a smirk from the doorway of Leo and Max's room, where Leo busied himself unpacking.

Leo turned enough to look at his mother sideways, and paused unpacking, "The last time one of his friends showed up, it was Jake. I'm not jealous, I'm cautious."

"She's been here a few days, and… The kids really like her," Fujiko stepped closer to her son and raised his chin up to meet her. "She's been telling the kids stories all weekend, and told Dako she'd take her hunting."

"The last thing Dako… Or any of the kids need… Is a gun," Leo said as he resumed unpacking, although he stopped once more as he watched his mother bite her lip. "What?"

"Well, you see…."

"He gave them _WHAT_?!" wrung from the second story all the way down into the living room of the house, where the rest of the family as well as Max's friend had gathered.

"He okay?" Torako eyed the upstairs worriedly, and Max merely nodded.

"He's just cranky," Max answered with a shrug and smile.

Torako gave a concerned nod, and turned back to the children, who were gathered around here, "Any of you guys wanna hear about the time your Dad stabbed me with a beer bottle?"

"It was an accident!" Max said with a huff, and Torako laughed and reached over, ruffling his hair.

"Do you have any tattoos?" Dako asked suddenly.

"Yup, all of the Inu Gang does! Part of initiation!"

"So I can't get one when I'm older, but you have one?" Dako said with a glare in Max's direction.

"Here," Torako removed her leather jacket, revealing a black tight-fitting shirt, as well as the kanji for 'dog' and 'gang' written on her right arm.

"Cool!" was the general consensus among the children.

"So where's yours?" Jared asked Max, turning to his father. Max only coughed while Torako gave a knowing smile, and Lupin took his cue.

"Who wants ice cream?" Lupin asked the children quickly.

"It's December," Faye answered, clearly confused.

"Hot cocoa, then," Lupin shrugged while lifting up Avery into his arms. Avery signed for 'yes', and the other three children were quick to follow their grandfather out of the house.

"…That was a nice save," Max said with a sigh of relief, and looked over to Torako. "So, what've you been up to? It's been years, Tora."

"Well, I'm in a little bit of trouble, Max," Torako answered with a twitch of her mouth.

"Oh, boy…" Max leaned back and sighed. "With who this time?"

"The Inus."

"I told you to leave while you could."

"I know, I know!" Torako moaned and leaned forward. "The gang's been overrun by some younger punks… They've totally lost focus of what the gang was about! I mean, not like we were the Salvation Army or anything, but they're just… You remember the guy who owned the CD shop down in China Town? The old guy who used to chase us away with a broom."

"Oh, yeah, Old Man Ching," Max nodded, and watched Torako's grave expression. "What happened to Ching?"

"They… Well… There's a reason I hopped a flight to Paris to talk to you. They burnt the shop to the ground! That's when I knew it was time to run," Torako brushed her hair back with her hands and leaned back against the couch, and remained silent for a few moments. It was only went Max went to hit her in the gut suddenly she moved, grabbing on to his wrist. "Still too slow."

"Heh, one day," Max moved his hand back to his lap, and sighed, "Okay, but I don't get what you want me to do exactly."

"Just… Can't you work your way in and like, bust some heads, or lead the cops to them? There's gotta be somethin'," Torako said with a shrug.

"I can gather some information, but I'd need someone inside."

"Well, I'm out… They're got a price on my head," Torako answered while scratching the back of her head.

"And I doubt they'd want me anymore," Max answered, looking down at his crutch regretfully.

"Max, are you going to iron those pants tonight?" Leo hurried down the stairs and turned the corner, then noticed the odd look he received from both his husband and his guest. "….What?"

Max looked to Torako, and this looked to Max, and then both nodded in unison.

Paris:

"A toast!" Fuji said brightly from the head of the of the table. "To Ryo-san's carrying of Victor's demon-child, and for the hope for many more babies!"

"Not friggin' likely," Yukiko muttered from her space on the table in between Toshiro and Saiyuri.

"Huh?" Saiyuri tilted her head to a side and took hold of her mother's arm. "But you wanted a little sister an' got it!"

"Hehe, can't fight with that," Toshiro said with a smirk as he took another sip of his sake and looked over to the surprisingly silent Yukiko. Yukiko said nothing more, but took a sip of her own soda.

"Oh! And to that dolphin Jordan fought against and lost!" Fuji added with a laugh.

"Ha ha," the tall blonde grumbled from his corner of the table while rubbing the sore area.

"Three times they went after you!" Heiji laughed. "Did you look good to it or something?"

"Probably," Jordan muttered. "Ouch."

"I'll make something for that later," Odori said calmly as she overlooked the wound on the back of his head.

"Nothing with earthworms as a key ingredient, please," Jordan muttered with a shudder.

"Hehe, I'm sure he can think of a way for you to make it all better, Dori-chan," Fuji answered with a wink, and Odori's mouth opened a bit in protest, and her face became bright red.

"So, do your parents even know we're at their main house, Fuij?" Ryo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Define 'know'," Fuji grinned, and went to reach over and grab another roll from the center of the, but suddenly became aware of the front door opening.

All fell silent, and Yukiko went to draw her gun, but Toshiro stopped her, and instead rose with one of his swords in hand, "I've got this."

He left for the living room, followed by Fuji close behind, and neither recognized the figure slumped on the Lupin family's white living room couches at first, but after a few moments they realized it was Ally, although as he went to stand again they realized it was an obviously drunk Ally.

"Ally-chan!" Fuji said with a large grin, although she was not oblivious to Ally's current state, and kept her hand on her gun. "When did you get in?!"

"Yesterday," Ally said in a low voice. "I can see you all came looking for me! Thanks!" he shouted in the direction of the dining room.

"Why don't we take the kids out back?" Ryo whispered to Yukiko, who gave a nod and lifted up her daughter while Ryo collected Namiko and Hikari. "Come on, guys, we'll see if it's snowing yet."

"Al, you look drunk…" Toshiro said cautiously.

"Hehe, leave it to the _coke head_ to diagnose me," Ally said with a chug. "Thanks, Dr. Phil."

"Hey, too low," Toshiro snapped.

"Oh, shut up," Ally slurred, and watched as Odori, Jordan, Heiji, and Victor joined them in the living room. "Ohhhh everyone else came to the show, I see!"

"Ally, why don't we get you upstairs?" Jordan asked, stepping towards Ally slowly. "We'll help you out."

"You guys, have done… Have done enough for me!" Ally snapped. "I… I don't get it… You guys… You're all happy… So why the hell did she leave me!?"

"Well, just sober up, and maybe go back to her not smelling like… Well, the rest of your family," Heiji suggested, followed by a shrug.

"Easy for you to say," Ally slurred, and looked to Jordan, and began to laugh. "Sooo have you guys even….? Nah, probably not… You're just as gay as the rest of your siblings, ain't ya, Jordan?"

"He's just drunk, he's just drunk!" Fuji reassured Jordan as she watched her half-brother's features darken briefly. "Ally-chan, you realllyyyyy need to sleep off whatever you had."

"I'm a Jigen, we're good drunks! Right, Yuki? Where the hell's Yuki? Off avoiding her kid again?" Ally chuckled. "Yeesh, makes Joan Crawford look like mom of the year sometimes… And yet she gets to see her kid whenever she wants."

Toshiro looked to Jordan, and both nodded, and both stalked toward Ally. He was quick to put up a fight, though, and Jordan was the first to go flying, landing on his head once again, followed by Toshiro, who was knocked against a China cabinet.

"Just our luck, the one who knows Drunken Boxing is the drunk one!" Fuji hissed.

"Any plans?" Ryo whispered to the Lupin gang leader.

"Just one," Fuji whispered, handing Ryo the gun she had concealed beneath her skirt and approaching Ally, taking hold of Odori's arm in the process; the swordswoman was about to go after Ally herself, but Fuji held her back instinctively. "I've got this."

" Fuji, don't," Jordan called from the floor, from where he sat cradling the back of his skull. But Fuji continued forward, gently placing a hand on Ally's shoulder and startling him. He placed one of his own shaking hands atop of hers, but instead of attacking her as he had the others, he collapsed against her. It took Fuji a few moments to adjust to the new weight, but managed to hold on to him.

"Why'd she leave?" he whispered shakily.

"Come on… We'll go upstairs and talk about this," Fuji said reassuringly, and looked past Ally to the other, and gave an affirming nod. They struggled upstairs, and Ally collapsed onto the mattress with his face to the ceiling. Fuji paused a moment after closing and locking the door, and then removed her shoes and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Why'd she leave me?" he asked again, this time his voice just above a whisper.

"Just… Sometimes people don't work out, Al…" Fuji explained with a sigh as she took his hand gently. "She has her reasons, Ally, I'm sure of it."

"You think she's gonna come back?"

"…You never know. Weirder things have happened. All I know is you're going to have a bunch of people angry at you in the morning… I'll try to smooth some things down, but… You really didn't do yourself a service calling Toshiro a coke head."

"Sometimes I wish I hadn't turned you down," Ally admitted suddenly, leaving Fuji a bit surprised. "I shouldn't have… It was so friggin' wrong of me…"

"Eh, you're human," she answered with a shrug and an understanding smile. "And for what it's worth… I'm kinda glad you did. I love Heiji-chan, and… I like you, but… Just as a friend. And besides, if I'd settled on you, I wouldn't have gotten my Hikari-chan, and she's the best thing I never knew would happen to me! Let's face it… You dumping me is the best thing that ever happened to me! It… Made me want to be someone better… Some one who guys wouldn't turn down."

"Mm," Ally nodded, and now laid back on the guest bed with his eye shut. Fuji gave a sigh of relief and stood, kissing him on the cheek and then covering him with a blanket, then looked back to him once more before shutting his bedroom door and propping up a chair against it—Just in case.

Paris:

"I don't trust her, Max!" Leo snapped as he and Max stood in their own locked bedroom.

"You trust me, you can trust Torako," Max snapped in response. "I owe her! She saved my life, damn it!"

"You owed Jake, too," Leo snapped. "You trusted Jake, too."

"So it's come down to you just being jealous, huh?" Max snorted. "When I wanted to leave the Inu Gang… She took the beating for me. I've always wanted to pay her back for that… So guess what, I am. Whether you like it or not… We'll deal with that late on."

"I… Listen, I didn't know that," Leo sighed and looked to the thick white carpeting. "So you really want to help her?"

"Yeah," was Max's answer, followed by a nod. "And we need your help, too."

"What do you need me to do?" Max smiled at this, as if he had expected it. "….What?" he asked, looking over the satisfied expression Zenigata wore.

"Ya know… Your hair's getting kind of long," Max leaned forward and ran a few fingers through the front of Leo's hair, forming it into a dull spike. Leo shook his head, reforming his hair to its original shape. "Maybe it's time for a haircut…"

"I don't like where this is going," Leo sighed, then hung his head in defeat. "But I know I'm just going to go along with it in the end, anyway."

"And you wonder why I love you," Max said with a grin. "Hey, Torako! You still got that jacket of yours?!"

"Jacket?" Leo wondered aloud. "Um, you guys do that… I'm going to head to the basement, I need to get some of my books…" he called, breaking away from Max and headed into the kitchen and then down the stairs to the basement. Then, soon after, the silence was broken by Leo shouted, "What the hell happened to my basement?!"

"Ohhhh he must've found it," Fujiko said with a sigh as she paused from her own reading in the living room. A few moments later, she resumed this, while Torako and Max rushed toward the basement.

Paris:

"Jeeze," Toshiro looked over the broken window, the shattered glass crackling beneath his sandals and traces of blood surrounding the window and the snow outside. It led out to the parked cars, but disappeared from there. Jordan's car had gone missing.

" Jordan, wasn't your car a manual transmission?" Ryo asked aloud, looking at the tall blonde, who stood with his arms crossed. It hadn't been a very good few weeks for him. Odori stood beside him, a hand on his arm in her quiet form of condolence. "Ally couldn't drive manual."

"You do a lot of stuff when you're not in your right mind," Toshiro sighed and turned back to the group gathered around the window. The three little girls had long gone to bed, leaving their parents to look over the opened window.

"I'll put some tarps and tape over it," Heiji patted Toshiro on the shoulder and smiled, then looked to Fuji, who continued to look down to the snow.

"It'll be okay," Heiji said quietly, leaning in and kissing Fuji. "Don't worry, he's strong, you know that… He just needs to go and get his head together first, you've done it yourself plenty of times."

"I know, I just…" Fuji sighed and brushed back her hair.

"Go on, I've got this," Heiji said with a reassuring smile. "Jordan, Toshiro, you want to give me a hand."

"I'll help as well," Odori answered before Jordan could protest. "Toshiro, why don't you check on the children?"

"Okay, Yuki and I'll take care of that," he nodded and headed out with the mobster, and into the makeshift nursery.

"They're cute when they're sleeping, and not whining or crying," Toshiro said with a wry smile as he looked over the three small children. "Kinda reminds me of…"

"You better mean Fuji," Yukiko snapped as she did the same. "…How'd my dad manage to do it?"

"Hrm? Put up with you? I don't know… Yet somehow I still go back to you. You know, you might've been on to something all those times you called me a moron."

"Well, I know that," Yukiko snorted, and cleared her throat. "So, um… While we're standing here…."

"Not in front of the kids," Toshiro smirked, and she rolled her eyes. He then gave a frown, and tilted his head. "What's today?"

"The tenth," she grunted, and Toshiro laughed.

"It's your birthday, and I forgot… Again," he rolled his eyes. "Jeeze I'm sorry… Soooo how old are you now?"

"I'd rather not answer, thanks," she answered, folding her arms. "You'd know if you kept any track of time, you'd know exactly how old. Hell, you've known me since I was seven!"

"I didn't get you anything," he said with a frown.

"Find Ally," Yukiko said sternly, breaking the silence. "I heard what Heiji said, but I don't think that… We Jigens are known for a lot, but sanity ain't one of them."

Toshiro nodded, "I'll get the Rat Clan on it… He probably ran off to somewhere in Asia, that's where he's most comfortable besides Chicago…. I just… I hope he's all right."

"I wanna think that, too, but," Yukiko shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't think it."

"I'll try my best," Toshiro nodded and bent down to kiss her, but fell short. "…Everything okay?"

"I… Well," she sighed.

"What's wrong, Yuki?" he asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Yukiko looked up at him, and moved one of his hands beneath her white jacket while keeping her eyes focused upon him. He tilted his head the other way, and felt as she moved his hand to her stomach. "…Oh."

The Lupin-Zenigata Residence:

"Cool, a pool table!" Torako exclaimed as she hopped downstairs to the floor of the basement, which had been transformed into a comfortable den. There was a pool table at one end, and a television with the children's video game systems hooked up to it. About the only thing remaining in the basement was an old couch, which had been leftover from Leo's old apartment, and Leo's books, which were lined up on shelves neatly in alphabetical order. "Bet I could still kick your ass, Max!"

"We'll see," Max muttered as he joined her down the stairs.

"Um, are you missing the point of they gutted our basement while we were gone!?" Leo snapped.

Max shrugged, "Considering the one time my parents left me alone, I wrecked their place, I consider this a happy surprise."

"We're back!" Faye announced happily. "We brought ya'll a pint."

"Heh, see, you're adjusting to the metric system already," Dako said as she scaled down the stairs and into the basement, stopping beside Leo. "You like what we did?"

"But… How….?"

"Well, you know the twenty Euros I got for my birthday? I gave them to grandpa, and I invested in a up and coming computer company."

"Uncle Heiji's," Jared interjected.

"Well, he's doing well for himself, sooo the stock skyrocketed and," Dako gave a shrug while not minding Leo's stunned expression, as well as Max's impressed one. "Don't worry, I didn't spend it all. I've got Grandpa investing in a couple of companies for me, now."

"I… You… Me…," Leo finally caved in, groaned, and slapped his forehead. "N-nevermind…"

"We logged all your books," Dako walked over to the bookshelves and smiled as she pulled an old Sanskrit dictionary from one of the shelves.

"Yah got some weird ones," Faye added, licking the ice cream cone still in her hand. "Somethin' about caramel streusels…"

Dako looked at Faye endearingly and smiled, "You know, she's just too cute to correct sometimes. I swear, she's better than a puppy."

"Face it, Dear… She's the best evil mind since me," Fujiko said, clearly bemused by this situation, then looked to Leo. "Caramel streusels, eh?"

"It was a gift from Dad," Leo snapped, his face flushing and his teeth grit.

"I honestly don't doubt that," Fujiko smiled, and lifted up Avery from the floor of the new den.

"Well, you kids have fun with this. Your… Dads… And I have something to get to work on," Torako said with a grin, placing an arm across Max's shoulders.

"You're still gonna teach me how to throw a baseball the right way, right?" Jared asked hopefully.

"Hehe, you got it, kiddo," she answered, patting and excited Jared on the head.

"I can play baseball, too," Leo grumbled darkly.

"Lookit, we even put up a tree!" Faye said happily, and Leo suddenly looked to Max with a panic.

"You guys'll be home in time for Christmas, and even Hanukah, if this goes well!" Torako patted Max on the back reassuringly.

"Okay. But if you're not right, it's so your ass," Max said with all things, a smile. The two then walked back up, followed by a clearly sulking Leo, leaving the children in the den with their grandparents. Lupin had remained quiet at the foot of the stairs, but looked down to Fujiko, who merely looked up at him and gave a nod.

Fuji's Household:

Toshiro stopped breathing a moment as Yukiko stirred, then gave a sigh of relief. His sitting up in bed and slight fidgeting had not woken up the light sleeper that was Yukiko. He could remember a time when she would sleep like a rock, but years of being on the run had made her the lightest sleeper of any in the Lupin gang, second only to Odori.

He looked down at her, and studied her for a few moments, briefly looking away from his script.

"Can't believe it's been so long…" he said beneath his breath as he looked her over, noticing with a pang the bullet wounds on her back.

Twenty years ago, Japan:

"You really managed to do it this time," Toshiro looked her over and smiled as she laid up in a hospital bed, one arm done in a sling and most of her forehead bandaged. "So you fell how many stories?"

"Four," she grumbled, and shifted in bed. "And straight onto a moving truck carrying watermelons."

"Well, at least that means that ugly white suit's a loss."

"I have a dozen of them."

"Of course you do," he smiled and took a seat beside her. "I got you… Flowers? I know you're not really the type, but it was the closest thing I could swipe."

"Stolen flowers. Great," Yukiko smiled and glanced at the lilies in his hands.

"Well, you didn't think I'd forget your birthday," Toshiro said with a grin, and Yukiko returned with her own weak smile. "Hey, I gave up a chance to play Simba tonight for you, so be grateful."

"This Broadway thing really isn't just a phase for you, is it?"

"Hey, my Dad trained just as hard. What he did and what I do are more similar than he likes to admit."

"Well, you're starting to sound like an American, so you better watch it," Yukiko gave a laugh, then groaned. "Ugh, my ribs!"

"You know if you settled down and married, that wouldn't be an issue for you," Toshiro said. "You could have a guy worry about that instead of you going off and busting your ass. I don't really see why you feel the need to prove yourself to everyone. We all know you're a badass, Yuki, we get it."

"That's incredibly Old World for a guy who lives in Brooklyn," Yukiko shifted in her bed and grunted.

"Well, I'd marry you," Toshiro said after a moment of thought. "Maybe not at the rate you're going, but if you learn to cook, and maybe an art or two…"

"Those flowers are going to be down your throat in about three seconds."

"You don't have to get yourself beaten up like this!" Toshiro snapped. "It's not really fair to anyone, including yourself! I… I understand you're tough. What I don't understand is why you have to throw yourself out of a window to prove it!"

"I didn't throw myself, I was thrown," Yukiko corrected, then paused as she noted the genuine concern in Toshiro's expression. "Don't… Don't go worryin' about me. I can take care of myself, I mean, I'm a Jigen, we're built like tanks! I mean, aside from the eyes… But I tell you now I have a liver of steel!"

It was obvious by Toshiro's expression that he was not amused, and Yukiko sighed, and turned her head to face him, "I'll be all right, I promise. I was trained by the best, you know what I'm capable of!"

"I just want to see another birthday of yours before I see your funeral," Toshiro explained, and rose from his seat. "I've gotta head out, my plane's leaving in another hour, and I left Julie at the airport."

"How're you guys doing?" she asked, and Toshiro paused, and coughed.

"She's fine… We're both fine," he answered, and looked over his shoulder to Yukiko. "Take care of yourself… And remember my offer, okay?"

"You got it. If I need a husband and quick, I'll look you up. A six-foot-tall guy dressed in a gi shouldn't be too difficult to find."

Toshiro laughed at this quietly, but was just as quickly gone.

Present Day:

"I did promise that I'd take care of you, didn't I?" he said quietly to himself and then slid out of bed. She was a light sleeper, but he had ninja training. He quickly dressed in a pair of jeans, old sneakers, and a gray sweater, put on a heavy green jacket over this, and was out of the room with his two swords and wallet.

"Please tell me you didn't pawn it, Fuji," he whispered as he walked down into the large multilevel garage and searched through the box of keys. "Yes!" he found the keys to his yellow Vespa, then headed to the second level. "Now let's just hope it's got gas and the tires aren't too flat."

It took some effort to find the light switch, and he was surprised when he finally did, and found Ryo already perched on the Vespa, "Let me guess… Pregnancy cravings? Well, I can drive you to get ice cream, Ryo, but then we're taking you back."

"I saw you leave your room and I know what you're doing… And I'm going with you. Ally's my brother, and… I know probably better than anyone where he'd run off to," she climbed off of the scooter but stood in front of it with her arms crossed, "Plus you'll need repairs along the way—You're driving an antique!"

"It's a classic model," Toshiro snapped, and climbed on to the scooter.

"You wouldn't even know what to do if your brakes went," Ryo hissed, and then watched as Toshiro thought for a few moments.

The samurai bent his head down and sighed, "Fine! But you stay out of gunfire, let me handle Ally if he's… Irrational… And don't tell me how to drive!"

"Deal on the first two," she answered, and hopped on to the scooted behind Toshiro. He could feel the beginnings of the child that was Ryo's and Victor's press against his back, and as he took off he already knew that he was making a bad decision.


	17. Whenever You Need Somebody

Welcome back!

Well, for me at least… My Lord it's been a while… I feel like I've been on the writer's strike, too. But occasionally writer's block hits us all, and I was one of the unfortunate victims this time. This isn't nearly as bad as some of my other writings, however; one project I'm currently involved I was not able to start until now because only now I have been able to think of how to open it; this project has been in the works for about two years. Also, while we're here, R.I.P. Geneon, you'll be missed… This now makes me worry about the Lupin series property, but I really hope that it will be picked up soon, and perhaps they will at least finish the rest of the second series. No matter for that, however, this isn't a time to worry—This is a time to relax, and enjoy another chapter. Now I know some people are probably upset with me for the lack of updates, but I still ask that you please let me know what you think of the chapter. Thanks a bunch!

P.S.: El Cid, Yuki, Lealah, Lup, Rick, Aries, Luna, Chas—THANK YOU for all your patience and support!!

Fun Fact of Boredom: Beta girl in the new Lupin OVA is named Yukiko. Makes me wonder, heh '

Chapter Seventeen: Whenever You Need Somebody (free cookie to whoever knows sang it XD)

Paris:

"Okay, now I'm _really_ not sure about this," Leo muttered as he sat on the closed seat of the toilet in the den, nee basement, of his and Max's home. He already now sported freshly dyed hair; it was a lighter shade of brown, with frosted tips. Leo thought this made him more ready for a night out on the gay bar than a gang meet, but Torako and Max paid no heed to this. Now Torako stood over him with a potato and a needle, and Max with a bucket of ice. "Couldn't I just use a clip-on? That's how I wear my ties…"

"This'll just hurt a second," Torako reassured him.

Max bent down at Leo's level and smiled. "It's just an ear piercing, nothing major… C'mon, both your daughters had it done!"

"Oh! We're doing the ear? Guess I better get a smaller ring," Torako muttered, and set down the potato and needle, and headed back up into the main house.

"What did she think she was piercing?!" Leo snapped, and rose off of the seat to go after her, but Max quickly stopped him and eased him back down. "I don't like your friends. They all want to kill or maim me."

"Not Jake, he just liked watching you suffer."

"Oh, is that all?!" Leo snapped.

"Hehe… Hey, I'm the cranky one here," Max smiled warmly at Leo and looked down at him, then a few moments later reached over and pulled Leo closer to him. "Listen, I worked too hard for you to leave you for Torako."

"So, did you guys…?"

"Nah. The only girl I've ever been with—" then Max stopped short, knowing the other half of his sentence would only make Leo angrier.

"Was who?" Leo swiveled on the seat and looked at Max above his glasses. "Did I know her?"

"Kinda," Max answered, clearing his throat. "Hey, about time you got back!" he said cheerfully, grateful at the sudden appearance of Torako.

"Aw…. You gays are so adorable and non-threatening," Torako said with grin.

"No, you're just a damn giantess," Max muttered, and handed her the ice bucket. She set down the potato a moment, and went to work at numbing the area.

The four children, who had busied themselves with a board game (Lupin was also present, but was not allowed to be banker, under order of Dako), all turned their heads at the ensuing scream. Even Avery looked up, having felt the vibrations of the yell through the wooden coffee table.

"I think they killed him," Jared muttered, then dropped the dice.

"She's the devil!" Leo shouted as he stormed out, a brass standing towel rack in his possession. Max went to approach him, but only had the towel rack pointed in his direction. "And you're just helping her!"

"Woah…" Dako blinked, paying no attention as Lupin attempted to calm down the fight after standing and cautiously walking over to his son. "I mean… I know he's one of our dads, but he's gone from geek to… Wow…"

"Huh?" Faye blinked, and realized this had been said in her direction. "Um… Yeah. I guess, if that's what you're into."

"I have a thing for guys who can kick ass," Dako admitted with a smirk. Jared only snorted at this, and Avery sipped contently at his juice box, looking over his shoulder at the ensuing fight with calm interest.

"You know…" Fujiko now returned from the kitchen with a bowl of chips for the kids. "He never did like needles growing up… Oh! Lupin!"

"Crap, Dad!" Leo yelped.

"That's gonna leave a bump," Dako cringed.

"Ya think?" Faye inquired.

"Ohhh yeah," she nodded. "Accident or not, he was decked at full-speed by solid brass."

"Yikes… Grandpa's not gonna be happy when he wakes up," Jared mumbled.

Beijing, China:

"Xie xie," Ryo nodded gratefully, then turned to Toshiro and sighed. "No one here has seen him, either."

"You really think he'd be here?"

"If you want to go one place, I'd think it'd be China… Over a billion people, and he knows the language fluently," Ryo muttered, and took a seat at the bar beside Toshiro. "If my mom hadn't burnt all of her bridges when she left the gang for Victor's dad, this wouldn't have been a problem."

"Wait, what?" Toshiro's neck snapped in her direction at this news. "He was almost your brother?"

"Listen, my mom's like the female Lupin… I'm more surprised when I find people she hasn't had a fling with, sad as it is. No more gross than Lupin having a crush on your mom."

"Yeah, he drooled over her plenty," Toshiro muttered, then scratched off another line on the list the two had made. "I promised Yuki I'd be home by Christmas."

"You have," Ryo glanced at her watch. "Twelve hours."

"We haven't missed one since I went off to New York… Hehe, I always feel like if I'd stayed, she wouldn't have turned into… Well…"

"Such a hard ass?"

"Yeah," Toshiro nodded. "For lack of a better word."

"Eh, that's just Yuki… I wouldn't love her if she weren't so cranky," Ryo said with a grin.

"Sooo you think she's mad?"

"She's probably looking for you so she can stick one of those swords up your ass."

Paris:

"When I find him, I'm gonna stick _both _of those swords up his ass!" Yukiko growled, and slammed down her glass. Saiyuri gave a shudder at this, and began to wail, and Yukiko shut her eyes at the sound of the piercing crying. She could see why the little girl was crying, though; her one parent had left in the dead of night, and the other one was a ball of short nerves and anger.

"S-sorry," Yukiko bent down in front of the little girl and shook a bit as she went to comfort Saiyuri. "It's just… Well, he promised he wouldn't, and…"

"Daddy's gone forever!" she wailed.

"N-no he's not," Yukiko answered with a nervous grin.

"Like Uncle Ally…" she sniffed, and Yukiko held the little girl close after she uttered this, and remained silent for a short while. "…Daddy just went to go bring Uncle Ally home. Ally… Well, he was really sad, so he went away to think for a while, and… We're just worried about him. Sooo that's why Daddy and Aunt Ryo left."

"They gonna find him?"

"They'll try like hell, kiddo," Yukiko answered with a knowing grin, and parted from the girl, then lifted her up. "Now… More importantly, I'm gonna have to do some shopping today."

Saiyuri cheered at this, and Yukiko smirked, "Yeah, yeah… I liked shopping a lot as a kid, too."

"So what're you going to do now?" Heiji sat on the bed, holding Hikari in his arms, while Fuji looked out the window, her back turned to him. "It's down to five of us… Four, really… I mean, someone's got to take care of the kids, right?"

Fuji was quiet a while, then looked to Heiji, optimistic as ever, "Well… We have a Lupin… We have an Ishikawa with a sword, and we have a Jigen… My dad did it with four people, so I'll do it, too!"

"That mean I'm Fujiko?" Heiji asked with a sigh as she approached him.

"No, I'm Fujiko," Fuji sat down beside him and messed with her daughter's hair a bit. "They don't really have a name for you, Heiji-chan."

"Why am I thinking it's 'babysitter'?" Heiji asked critically.

"Nooo. We're dropping them off at the Zenigatas! I mean, I can't really do the family tree right now, but they're someone's grandchildren somewhere!"

Heiji rolled his eyes and laughed, "Yeah, just what they need… They had Max for over twenty years, do you really think this is fair to them?"

"Oh, if Blondie had gone to any other parents he just wouldn't be the same Max we love and adore!" Fuji smiled at Heiji's scoffing at this, and leaned in to him. "Speaking of Blondie, he and bro going to be in San Francisco, too!"

"You know this how?"

"I have their house bugged, maybe… How do you think I know what to get those kids every Christmas?!" Fuji said with a grin.

"That's incredibly creepy, even by your standards. So what'd you get them this year?"

"Ehehehe…."

Then came a scratching from the closet door, and Fuji's seemingly innocent smile became even less convincing. Heiji handed the baby to her, and was cautious in opening the closet door.

"It's not Odori is it—WOAH!" he yelped at he was tackled by what he thought was first a large black monster.

"I got a little depressed and did some shopping this morning…" Fuji answered quietly.

"It's just not enough to donate to orphanages every year, you have to go all out on your nieces and nephews, too?" Heiji managed to push the beast away and glared as he gripped onto the nightstand to rise. "If he tries to ride me…"

"Nooo he's not my brother, Heiji-chan!"

"That was very traumatic, by the way," Heiji muttered as he stood and looked at the animal. "Is it some kind of dog… Cow… Thing…?"

"Mastiff," Fuji answered with a grin. The dog merely sat and stared as Heiji, wagging his tail passively.

"He's out to get me," Heiji muttered, and wiped his drool-covered face with his hand. "Yuck!"

"Hehehe I found him in a pound."

"Wow, I couldn't imagine why," Heiji muttered plainly as he looked the dog over. "Does it have a name?"

"Ehh not yet… Heiji-chan?" Fuji giggled.

"No," Heiji snapped. "Can we go drop him off?"

"Sure thing! Lemme get Hikari-chan ready. You hang out with the puppy!"

Heiji looked down at the door, and their eyes met a moment, then Heiji jumped after it gave a loud bark.

"Okay, we're ready!" Fuji said cheerily.

"Yeahhh… We're dropping this off first, right?"

"You betcha," Fuji winked and grinned. "C'mon, Heiji-chan! You get the puppy!"

"Of course…" Heiji found the dog's collar and tugged at it. The dog failed to comply, and Heiji found himself pulling at the collar. Fuji merely gave a whistle on her way out, and the dog ran off after her, knocking Heiji on the ground once more.

The Lupin-Zenigata residence:

"Arm, you think?" Torako asked Max quietly as they conversed quietly in a corner of the den. Lupin was a sprawled out on the couch, an ice pack quelling the bump rising on his head, and Fujiko had taken his spot in the board game. She had totally turned the game around, and now was the clear frontrunner in the game. It was beginning to turn into a fierce competition between her and Dako, while Avery, Faye, and Jared all looked on, a bit worried about the determined expressions both wore.

"You two… Are trying to kill me…" Leo muttered, rubbing her sore ear, and flinching as he touched it. "What was the point of that, anyway? I mean, there're gangsters out there who don't have pierced ears, too."

"It's one of the signs you've been let in… It's part of initiation, only another Inu can do it to you," Max explained. "At least I don't have to stab you, hehe."

"_What?!_" Leo yelped, gawking at Max's amused expression.

"Yeah. I had to hang out with her for a week and go through whatever hell she put me through, because she was a senior," Max said with a laugh, pointing with his thumb to Torako.

"Remember when I died your hair with ink?" Torako laughed.

"Ohhh yeah," Max nodded. "Go figure they give me the mean sponsor."

"How could you…" Leo looked to Torako, and then to Max. He had known going into the relationship that Max was a little 'different', and had anger issues… But this was a whole other side of Zenigata-Lupin, who laughed about the torment he'd gone through.

"Hey, I'm probably gonna go grab you some ice. Leo, you wanna follow?" Torako walked over to him and held out a hand. Leo sighed and stood, not even acknowledging the hand, and Torako nodded to Max, who only looked back to his children, who were now in the middle of a great board game war. Lupin still hadn't woken up from his K.O.

Leo entered the kitchen, where Torako already stood, bent over and gathering ice from the fridge. All he would have to do was grab her by the hair and slam her head against the refrigerator door, and the queen of pain would be gone from him life forever.

"Hey!" but it was too late before he could make it. She was already standing again, ice pack in hand. "Here ya go! That ought to help with the swelling!"

"Thanks…" Leo muttered, taking it and placing it on his pounding ear.

"I'm not trying to steal your boy toy from you," Torako said, leaning against the granite kitchen island and looking Leo over. "And I really appreciate you doing this for me… For him and me…"

"No problem," Leo muttered, looking down at the ground.

"I grew up in foster homes," she announced after a few moments. "My dad was in organized crime, my mom died when I was born…. When he was taken to the pokey, no one wanted me. I didn't have any family in the States, either… That's when the Inus took me in. They were all people like me… They didn't fit in anywhere…. Because they were biracial, like Max, or didn't have parents, like me, or they just sucked at life and couldn't think of anywhere else to go… They were cool, but… Max was my first friend. And I think of him as more of a brother than anything, so don't worry. I don't want him for that, okay? I'm not gonna move in on your man."

"Urm….. Thanks," Leo answered with a blink. He now felt about a foot tall; she seemed to have a past even more screwed up than that of Max's. But was he supposed to have known?

"Good," she punched Leo in the arm and smiled. "I just wanted to make sure that was square, 'cause I was getting the impression you hated me for a few, there!"

"Hehe…" Leo only gave a faint laugh, then cleared his throat. "So, are you….?"

"Gay?" she concluded, grinning. "Hell, no! I like guys wayyyy too much! I'm just butch, is all!"

"Makes sense," Leo said with a moment's thought. "So what else do I have to do… For this Inu gang thing?"

"Hrm? So you're really gonna do it?"

"Well, my hair's dyed now, and I've got yet another hole in my head… Might as well, right?"

Leo wasn't prepared for the strong embrace Torako delivered to him, much less when she lifted him off the ground then kissed him on the cheek.

"Lee, you freakin' _rock_!" she said with a grin, and then went off running down the basement.

"Lee?" Leo repeated after recovering from the back-breaking embrace of Max's friend. "I have a feeling… That this is going to be one of those things I regret."

Hong Kong:

The room was mainly dark red, except for the mahogany woodworking. There were brush paintings along the walls, on white canvases. Fierce tigers, cranes in flight, and scenic views of old China, mainly. The floor had a matching red carpet, and was sparsely furnished. The only lights came from above, in a yellowed chandelier, as well as two torch lamps standing on either side of the exit. And there were two men on either side of the older Chinese man in the mahogany and red cushioned chair. They were dressed in suits, he was in traditional dress. Ally had his black jacket tossed aside him, as his feet.

"So. You are familiar with my sister," the older man said after taking a long pause to examine Ally over.

"She's my mother," Ally answered, then gave a dry gulp.

The man turned his head to one said, and smiled, "But your last name is different from Ming?"

"Yeah. It's Jigen," Ally answered with a nod.

"Jigen? I didn't know the whore had married… That's… Japanese, right?" he continued. "For what, temperament?"

"Dimension, I think," Ally answered with a cough. The older man gave a laugh.

"So what brings a young man like you out from the protection of his father's wing, neh?"

"I want to join you. I came a long way so I could," Ally answered, taking a step forward. The guards went to attack him, but the old man held up his hand, and stood, then slowly walked over to Ally.

He gave a smile, and patted Ally on the shoulders, "Welcome, my son… You are welcomed in the family of Ming Ju-Long. We will make you one of the family, gladly. You will find peace here."

Ally bent his head down, and nodded, "Thank you…"

"You are welcome. Now your initiation begins immediately."

The Lupin-Zenigata Household:

"You're _sure _this is temporary?" Leo said unsurely, glancing in the mirror and trying his best to look over his shoulder at his back.

"Sure is! It's like the new 'thing' now," Torako answered, and stood up from the stool she had been working on. "Now you're really an Inu Gang member!"

"I always thought tattoos would make people look like jerks," Leo muttered, then snapped his head in the direction of Max and Torako. "N-not you guys, but…"

"Eh, no offense taken!" she answered with a grin. "Max and I are jerks. So it fits!"

"Speak for yourself," Max muttered, then also stood, although with less ease. The doorbell went off, and he gave a groan.

"I'll get it!" Faye said happily, jumping up from the board game quickly and rushing up the stairs.

"If it's the religious people remind them that this is a house of Satan!" Max called as she went running to the front door.

"I better go check, too," Jared said after a moment's thought; it was more of a selfish move, to get away from the ensuing battle between Fujiko and Dako. Avery followed his older brother, only signifying with the Sign 'same', and they were gone as well.

Max and Leo thought nothing of this until they heard happy squeals, followed by barking. Max grit his teeth, and Leo excused himself, and went running up the stairs before Max could shout. He still could hear it ringing from the walls as he made his way into the kitchen, a loud, long "FUJJIIIIII!"

"Lookit, a puppy!" Faye said excitedly as Leo entered the living room where the large beast sat drooling and enjoying the attention of the three children.

"….." Fuji said nothing to the glaring Leo, only gave a wide, nervous grin. "….I like your hair," she finally said.

"Hey, does he have a name?" Jared asked, although he did not stop petting the dog as he did so.

"Ummm I don't think so," Fuji answered, and knelt down with the children. "He's a cutey, though, huh?"

"Aww, puppy," Dako said as she now walked into the living room. This caught Leo off guard; Dako wasn't an 'aww' person. But she, too, bent down and began to coddle the dog.

"He's your problem, now. He likes to eat USB cables. Have fun with that," Heiji said, shoving the leash into Leo's chest. "And don't bend down to quick."

"Wh—Oh," Leo answered, blinking at the panting dog who was now staring and drooling at him. "Guys… That's a lot of work… And you know we travel."

"Aw, can we please keep him?" Faye asked, looking up at Leo with her big brown eyes.

"No way," Max hobbled out and laughed. "He can't say no, so I'll say it. No, no, no, and no."

"We could say he's a hearing dog for Avery!" Jared said, and Avery nodded in agreement.

"He's bigger than Avery," Max answered. "He's going."

The four children gave a moan, and Fuji sighed, "Come on, guys. Every kid needs a puppy growing up, you know that!"

"I didn't have one, and I turned out okay," Max answered, and Leo looked at the dog once more.

"Okay," said Leo. "We'll try it out. But no fights on who takes him out."

"We won't," they muttered.

"We gotta find a name for him!" Faye said excitedly.

"Yeah! How about—" Jared was quickly cut off, though.

"If you say Akamaru or Kiba, I'm going to smack you down," Dako said sternly.

"I wasn't!" Jared snapped. "….But they are cool names…."

"Ugh…" Dako grunted. "How about Harry?"

"How about no," Jared answered.

"Jake's a nice name!" Faye said with a gasp.

"No it's not. Moving on," Max answered quickly.

"So what do you think is a good name, Miss Know it All?"

"Drake?" Dako said with a shrug.

"Ew, that's like that stupid show you watch!"

"It's not stupid! Say it is, and I'll kick you right in the ass!" Dako snarled.

"Okay, okay, calm down," Leo said with a sigh, and held up his hand. The dog stood in front of Leo and Max, and barked.

"He came with a muzzle, right?" Max asked Fuji.

"Max, if you can't think of anything nice, go sit down over there," Leo answered in a snap; clearly with everything happening, his fuse particularly was short.

And the dog sat at this command. Leo looked down at him, puzzled, then thought for a moment, "Max, roll over."

"I'm not going to—" but Max then stopped as the dog did just that, then looked up at Leo with his tail wagging. "…You're kidding me... His name's Max, too?"

"It is a really common name for a dog," Leo admitted, brushing back his hair, which was still sore from when it had been bleached.

"The most popular, actually," Heiji added with a nod.

"What's all the commotion about?" Fuji asked as she walked up the steps and into the living room. "You guys have a dog?"

"Now they do," Fuji answered happily, and clapped her hands together, "When'd you get here, Mom?! Is dad here?"

"Yeah, I knocked him out cold," Leo answered quickly, and then quickly changed the subject. "Mom, we've got to leave tonight, would you and dad mind…?"

"Not at all. Your father's concussion should be all gone by then," she answered with a smile and a nod.

"Concussion?" Fuji yelped. "What concussion?"

This went unnoticed, however, and Leo and Max walked back to the basement, while the children continued to coo over the new dog.

"Ari and your father had an incident…" Fujiko answered with a pat of Fuji's shoulder. "Can you stay for dinner?"

"Ehhh no. I have a flight to catch," Fuji answered with a grin.

"And this has absolutely nothing to do with their travel plans, huh?"

"Leaving? They're leaving? Where to? Romantic getaway, trip with the kids to Disney?" Fuji asked with a knowing grin.

"Watch your ass, Fujiko," her mother answered with a knowing smile of her own.

"Hee hee.. I've got a flock of guys willing to do that for me, Mom! I'm one hot little MILF!"

"…You're going to be such a cause for embarrassment for that poor baby when she gets older."

"At least she'll have her cousins to complain to," Fuji said with a shrug.

"…So any luck with Ally, yet?"

"Nothing," Fuji answered with a shake of the head, immediately losing the smile and glint in her eye. "Toshiro-chan and Ryo-san are out looking for him, though, which has got Yuki-chan feeling pretty upset…. Which really is not good for someone in her condition!"

"Wait, so she's… Again?!..."

"Mm-hm! Her face is starting to fill out already, and she's crankier than normal!"

"…I still remember braiding her hair when she was little," Fujiko muttered. "I don't know what you're going to go do, but you stay safe. It's not just you, now, Fuji, other people depend on you, too."

"I know, Mom."

"And I'm talking about your daughter, just not your team."

Fuji nodded, and turned to leave with Heiji, who was now over visiting his Uncle Max and was simply ready to move on. "Do you want me to bring you back a present, Mom?"

"All of you alive, preferably," Fujiko called out, and folded her arms as she watched her daughter and future son-in-law walk out of the house. "…I'd always hoped you'd have as much sense as your brother, Fuji… It's a whole different game from the one your father and I played."

"Fujiko-chan, you mind explaining to me how I lost three hours and developed a splitting headache?" Lupin had managed to drag himself up the stairs and still clutched on to his ice pack, which hid a welt that Leo had managed to inflict upon him.

"Hrm? Oh, I'll tell you all about it, later. The kids got a puppy."

"Ari hates dogs. Max hates almost anything living."

"Mm, I think part of Fuji knew that," answered Fujiko with a nod.

A week later, Hong Kong:

"What do you think?"

"I think this is the reason I identify more with Taoism," Ryo said with a laugh as she looked over the pathetic bonsai tree, dressed up to look festive. "It's past Christmas, though!"

"Mm, well, I couldn't get a tree until now," Toshiro adjusted the foil star atop the tree and smiled at it affectionately. "It looks like the one Julie and I had a few of our Christmases."

"How many does this make without her?" Ryo wondered aloud as she continued to look over the map and cross off another location.

"Seven," he answered. "Seven years since I lost her."

"And eight since my engagement went up in smoke," Ryo added, and folded up the map. "Well, we searched through all of that region, and Fuji's called me," Ryo glanced at her cell phone on the table, "fifteen times this past hour."

"I know if you pick up, though, that it's gonna be a bitch fest for both of us," Toshiro brushed back his hair and shut his eyes. "How hard is it really to find a short biracial guy with a beard who's either dressed like Bruce Lee or Wayne Gretzky at any given moment?"

"Harder than I thought," Ryo answered, and gave a wince.

"Everything okay?"

"It kicked me," she muttered, placing a hand on her stomach. "Little monster, I'm the one letting him live here, you think he'd manage to not kick at my liver every five seconds."

"Well, it is Victor's," Toshiro shrugged. "You should get some rest, Ryo—All this traveling isn't good for you or that baby in there. I cut both Julia and Yuki down on the strenuous activity when they were this far along," Toshiro rose and took her hand, and she stood up from the chair and walked to the bed.

"Do you still miss her? Julie? I mean, I know you're with my sister, but…"

"All of the time," Toshiro answered.

"Mm, I miss Ari a lot sometimes, still," she answered as she removed her sandals and rubbed her sore feet.

"Not the same as having him die on you."

"Ari's gone," she shook her head. "There's Leo, now. I almost killed myself because I couldn't see that."

"Well, we do stupid things for people we love. I got sucked into playing Linus in _You're__ A Good Man, Charlie Brown_ because Julie gave me the puppy dog eyes," as Toshiro spoke he picked up his backpack and headed to the bathroom. "I say we call it a day…"

"So, did you have to carry around a blanket?"

"Get to sleep, Ju—Ryo," he stopped, and shook his head. "Urm, sorry…"

"It's okay… You're probably a little off when you're not around your blanket, Linus…."

"Meh," Toshiro muttered, and turned in to the small hotel bathroom.

San Francisco International Airport:

"When did they shut down Terminal 2?" Max muttered to Torako as they took the escalator down to baggage claim.

"In 2000," Torako answered, blinking. "You reallyyyy haven't come to this airport in a while, have you?"

"Eh, we always end up at a different place from where we started, or we don't take this airport," Max shrugged.

Leo removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "If I have to go through a random airline search one more time…"

"Oh, you did great!"

"You looked like a scared bunny, it was cute," Torako added with a smile.

"…When do we get to this Inu Gang I'm going to help you guys with?" Max was about to speak, but Leo held up a hand after picking up his suitcase. "I see drinks… I'll be right back…"

"Wow, he's turning into you," Torako blinked as Leo grumbled and headed to the wine shop. "Does your boyfriend usually booze it up right when you get somewhere?"

"He's stressed… And it's more than the Inu thing," Max answered, leaning on to his cane for support. "Would you give us…?"

"Take all the time you need. I'm gonna hit the Pacific Outfitters and see how long it takes for a security guy to start following me around," Torako pointed to the said shop, and then hurried down to it without another word.

Max, meanwhile, hobbled over to the shop Leo had ducked into, and looked about at the numerous wine bottles, being taken aback before focusing on Leo.

"Bourbon, neh? Good memories…" Max smiled as he glanced over Leo's shoulder. Lupin nearly dropped the bottle at Max's voice, and turned to face him. "What's eating you…? I know Torako's kind of a pain, and a new dog isn't helping, either… But something else is going on with you, I know it…"

"It's nothing," Leo answered with smile. "Sorry, just had a lot on my mind… Ally went missing."

"What? As in, out of Fuji's sight?"

"Mm," Leo nodded. "Yeah… I thought something was weird when I was reading about how Carmen had returned to Cagliostro after an extended vacation—"

"Which means she was really with them, but go on."

"She wasn't with Ally… So I called around a few connections I have in the family, and he's been MIA for a close to a month, now, which is a very un-Ally thing to do. He'd die for Fuji. If there's one person he loved besides Carmen, it's Fuji."

"So what're you thinking?"

"About asking Fuji if she wants to join up again after this," Leo answered, placing a wine bottle that he had been holding back on the shelf and turning to Max. "Ryo and Toshiro are already out there looking for him, and I think she needs all the manpower she can get."

"You know this means possibly returning to the dark side, young Skywalker…."

Leo gave a small laugh at this, "Yeah, well, I'm infiltrating a gang for one of your friends, I might as well go save one of mine."

"So… You and Ally…?"

"Never as close as you and me, but he was always there for me… I just hope he's all right."

"Well, for your sake I hope he is, too, buddy," Max patted Leo's shoulder and grinned at him. "He'll be fine, I mean, it's Ally. He's one of those crazy people who has nine lives just because of that fact."

"Kinda like your buddy?"

"Torako's on her last life and knows it—Hence why she's calling me in. I was one of the fiercest Inu Gang fighters in my day! Hell, I'll probably be able to kick some of those punk asses even with a cane."

"I just hope I can manage to do the same if they find out I'm a cop."

"Elbow's the strong point in your body. Don't forget that," Max instructed him. "Might want to pick up some wine, too."

"For your parents?"

"That and you can make a pretty decent knife out of one…" muttered Max, who then laughed.

"If you weren't a cripple I'd punch you now, just to let you know…"

"Eh, that's not the Inu spirit… If you were one of them you'd have my wallet off of me by now."

The other side of the airport:

"Lookit, Yuki-chan!" Fuji grinned widely and pulled off a bright floral maternity shirt off of one of the shop racks. "You'd look soooo cute in this!"

"I'd look like barfed up fruit salad," Yukiko muttered as she looked it over.

"Ohhh here's this shirt! I had one of these!" Fuji held up a bright pink shirt that read 'Bun in the Oven'. Yukiko scowled at this. "I'm getting you one of these," Fuji whispered.

"Do it and I kill you," Yukiko muttered as she looked over the rotating key chain stand.

"On edge, aren't we?" Fuji poked her playfully and smiled. "You're lucky though, that you get to do it all again. I wasn't even awake when Hikari-chan was born!"

Yukiko only wordlessly looked up from above her fedora, and Fuji took this as a signal to continue.

"Mm-hm! I was in a coma for a couple of days… It was fun, though—Had some really pleasant dreams in that time… Like cool _Wizard of Oz_ type stuff! Then I woke up and found out they'd gutted me like a fish. Not fun."

"Urm…. Sorry…" Yukiko wanted to crawl beneath a rock at this point.

"It's okay. I've still got room and board and—"

Yukiko held up her hands, "Fuji I… I'm really sorry, but I'm not big on Mommy Talk. I don't to breathing exercises, I don't have a friggin' Baby on Board sticker, I don't dress my kid up like it's a Chihuahua. I just…"

"Let's go try this on you, Yuki-chan," Fuji then pulled off a dress from one of the racks and pushed the protesting Yukiko into one of the fitting rooms.

"What the hell was that about?! We've got Dori and Jordan and—"

"We're being followed," Fuji said with a grin as she pulled off her jacket in the small room.

"Wait, what? Who would want to follow us?" Yukiko did a double take at this, then took a step back, her back at the wall of the changing room as Fuji began to undo the gunwoman's tie.

"Probably whoever Ally's working for… He's not the kind to strike out on his own. Now, come on, we need some disguises, and we need to get you and your baby out of here!"

"What about our kids?"

"I would trust Dori-chan with my own and my daughter's life any time," admitted Fuji with a smile, and she then turned her jacket inside-out, and Yukiko watched as it transformed into a green button-up shirt. "Not easy to do this with denim!"

"It's an airport, you know how tight security is… Hell, if you didn't bribe everyone in sight, you'd have been arrested nine times over."

"Who, me? Fuji asked innocently. "Here, put this on, too," Fuji's dress flipped to reveal a long black skirt, and Yukiko moaned.

"Yeah, cause that goes great with black and white shoes."

"I stole some sandals, they're in my purse."

"How the hell do you think to do all this?!"

"What can I say, I've always been a pro at strategy. Goemon and I were the rulers of four-day long chess games," Fuji ripped off the tags and slipped on the dress she had pulled off of the rack, then took Yukiko's old clothes, placed them in a plastic bag and under her dress. "No one'll recognize you like that, Yuki-chan!"

"Let's just go," Yukiko grumbled, and adjusted the headband that had been Fuji's necklace only moments ago. "How're we going to explain this to everyone?"

"Ohhh I have my hints," Fuji answered with a confident smile, and took up her bag on her shoulder again. "Let's get goin'!"

But it was when Fuji put her hand on the doorknob that a bullet came shooting through, inches away from her hand.

"Yikes! Hey, watch it, I'm a rightie!" Fuji shouted, jumping back from the door and looking to Yukiko, who already had her gun drawn. "So much for disguises, neh, Yuki-chan!?"

"Whatta we do?" Yukiko asked, her back to the wall.

Fuji wordlessly sat back against the other side of the entrance wall, and made motions which Yukiko understood, and the gunwoman gave a nod. Yukiko raised up her gun with one hand, gripped onto the doorknob with another, and then swung it open, turning about and firing almost instantly. While she did this, Fuji threw out a smoke bomb. The ensuing smoke didn't give Yukiko a good look of the gunman; all she saw was white gloves on one, and only the lithe figure of another.

"Run, Yuki-chan!" Fuji panted.

"And you think I'm doing _what_?" Yukiko snarled as they ran out of the store, Fuji firing off another smoke bomb over her shoulder.


	18. NOTICEStory cont'd A Treasure Like

Quick special notice: Had this story on your watch for-freaking-ever? Go to my profile, I'm continuing it on a new story, so read it there, please!


End file.
